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ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SERMONS 



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Elder Elijah Martindale 



PIONEER HISTORY OF THE BOYD FAMILY 



By Belle Stanford 



JJO} i, no-,,' >-) J>J 



INDIANAPOLIS 

CARLON & HOLLENBECK, PRINTERS 
1892 






'01 



INTRODUCTION. 



Few men in the Christian ministry to- 
day know what toils and privations accom- 
panied the early pioneer preachers. 

It is well to take a glance backward, and 
read a few sketches of those men who went 
forth without money and without price, try- 
ing to sow the seed of the Kingdom in the 
wild regions of America. 

In preparing the second part of this work 
for publication, it is not the sole object 
merely to preserve a family history, but to 
show to the present generation what it cost 
our forefathers to purchase the blessings and 
liberties that we as a nation enjoy. 

Belle Stanford. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PART FIRST. 

CHAPTER I. 

Birth and Early Training — Emigration to Ohio — 
To Indiana — Indian Troubles — Eeturning a Sec- 
ond Time to Our New Home — Religious Impres- 
sions 1 

CHAPTER 11. 

Marriage — Deep Conviction for Sin— Christian Ex- 
perience and Baptism — A Journey with William 
Stubbs — Uniting with the Newlight Church. ... 10 

CHAPTER III. 

Ordained to the Ministry — First Sermon— Pov- 
erty and Persecution— Mourners Uncomforted— 
Preaching Near New Lisbon — Flattery 18 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Jerusalem Doctrine Calls Down Persecution — 
Voted Out of the New House — Some Things 
Lacking — Controversial Preaching — Ministers 
Exhorted to Faithfulness 25 

CHAPTER V. 

Preaching the Gospel — Desire for Union — Love for 
the Erring — Zeal of the Old Preachers 31 

CHAPTER VI. 
Preaching Near Middletown 38 



vi TABLE OF COIs TENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 
Preaching at Eentonville 44 

CHAPTER VIII. 
A Flourishing Church at Hillsboro 51 

BRIEF ARTICLES AJ^D SERMONS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
On Family Training 59 

CHAPTER X. 

The Gospel Invitation (U 

CHAPTER XL 

Thanksgiving Sermon 69 

chapte:r XII. 

Sermon on Prayer 74 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Letter to Church Members 80 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Object and Form of Local Churches 82 

CHAPTER XV. 

On Exhortation 85 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Parable of the Ten Virgins 87 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Religion and Politics 94 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Where is the True Church of Christ 98 



tablp: of contents. yii 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Letter to My Brother John 103 

CHAPTER XX. 
Extract from a Speech Delivered at an Old Set- 
tlers' Meeting, New Castle, August 10, 1871 107 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Sermon Delivered at New Castle 110 

Song 115 

History of the Martindale Family in America, by 
Elijah Martindale 117 

PART SECOND. 

CHAPTER I. 

Elizabeth Martindale — She Sends Out a Mission- 
ary — The Boyd Family in the Revolutionary 
War 120 

CHAPTER II. 
History of Samuel Boyd and Family 126 

CHAPTER III. 
Samuel Boyd Among the Indians 136 

CHAPTER IV. 
Elijah and Elizabeth Martindale and Family 141 

CHAPTER V. 
The Boyd Family 153 

CHAPTER VI. 

The History of Dr. Boyd and His Brothers in the 
Army 162 

CHAPTER VII. 
Pioneer Life at Mt. Vernon 169 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH AND EARLY TRAINING — EMIGRATION TO OHIO — TO 
INDIANA — INDIAN TROUBLES — RETURNING A SECOND 
TIME TO OUR NEW HOME — RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS. 

I was born in Laurence District, Soutli 
Carolina, November 10, 1793. I was the 
oldest child of my mother, who was a 
pious member of the Baptist church. To 
her more than any earthly means am I 
indebted for that influence which made 
me a Christian. Well do I remember 
the first family j)rayer she ever made 
with her children. I was quite young 
but I never entirely lost the impression 
that was made on my mind by that 
prayer. I now believe that the admoni- 
tions, warnings, exhortations and prayers 
of a faithful mother seldom if ever fail to 
bring her children under the saving 
power of the Gospel. 



2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

My father became a member of the 
Baptist church when I was about ten 
years old. I remember how it rejoiced 
my mother when she got her companion 
to join her in the service of the Lord. 
When I was about eight years old my 
father left the South and moved to War- 
ren county, Ohio, where I was brought to 
manhood. 

In the fall of 1811 we moved to the 
Territory of Indiana and my father, John 
Martindale, bought land in Wayne 
county, and built his cabin on the creek 
that took his name and will carry it per- 
haps to the end of time. 

In a few days after we made our settle- 
ment came the battle of Tippecanoe, then 
war with England, and what was worse 
the uprising of the Indians in many parts 
of Indiana. Those dark and gloomy days, 
so full of peril and danger, come throng- 
ing back in my memory yet. The In- 
dians became so troublesome that a few 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 3 

settlers went to work and built a fort, en- 
closing our cabin with a block-house, and 
some two or three families moved in. 
We soon found this to be a very unhappy 
way of living. The fort was protected to 
some extent by rangers sent out by the 
government to watch the movements of 
the Indians, yet father, seeing the bad in- 
fluence by which his family was sur- 
rounded, concluded to move back to Ohio. 
Before he left he was visited by his 
cousin, David Young, who had bought 
land in the neighborhood where the city 
of Richmond now stands. He had moved , 
his family away for fear of the Indians 
and was living alone trying to raise some 
corn. He greatly desired father to let me 
go home with him and help him to tend 
his corn. I Avent, and while I was there 
a large company of Indians claiming to 
be friendly came into the neighborhood 
to buy provisions. They made their 
camp a short distance west of Young's 



4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

house, which lay right between their 
camp and the settlement, so they would 
pass us generally twice a day. We didn't 
feel much afraid of them while they kept 
sober, but after some days some wicked 
person sold liquor to a squad of them and 
made them drunk, so drunk they could 
not get into camp, but late in the night 
they stumbled into Young's house where 
we were fast asleep. They hallooed. 
Young awake and ordered the door open. 
He made no reply. They then forced the 
door open and came in, ten or twelve in 
number, all drunk, singing, dancing and 
hallooing at the top of their voices. By 
this time Young had succeeded in waking 
me by severe pinching as he was afraid 
to speak to me. He said in a whis- 
per, "What shall we do?" I think he 
proposed leaving the house. I had been 
more among the Indians than he and I 
suppose was not so much alarmed, though 
I was then but a boy. I said let us get 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 5 

up and spread some bedding on the floor 
and order those drunken rascals with 
authority to lie down and be still. We 
did so and succeeded in getting them 
all to lie down. We went to bed 
and I slept soundly, but my friend 
Young said he slept no more that 
night, but lay and watched our intruders. 
He said several times one or more would 
rise and dance awhile, then lie down 
again. I have often wondered why I was 
so insensible to the dangers we were in 
with those drunken savages, who were 
always filled with hatred to the white 
man, and especially in a state of intoxica- 
tion. The Pottawotamies and the Dela- 
wares were the tribes most common. 
They owned all the land west of the West 
Fork of Whitewater and" east of the Wa- 
bash. All this beautiful land was an un- 
broken wilderness under the claims of the 
savages. 

In the war of 1812 the frontier settlers 



6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

suffered mostly from that barbarous prac- 
tice of bribing the savages to murder in- 
nocent women and children. Some of the 
tribes professed to be neutral, but they 
no doubt were in league with the war In- 
dians and would often commit murder 
and robbery in order to sell the scalps 
and plunder to those in the British serv- 
ice. At all events they were much in- 
clined to do mischief, and few of them 
could be trusted. 

When peace was restored we moved 
back to our new home and went to work 
to clear away the forest trees and make a 
farm. We had but little chance for im- 
provement from either church or school, 
but there was more kindness and neigh- 
borly services than I find in older settled 
countries. When people attain wealth 
they are apt to lose that brotherly regard 
that is necessary to social enjoyment in 
this life. My father's house was for sev- 
eral years the meeting place of the Bap- 



ELDER ELIJAH MAETINDALE. 7 

tist people. Adams Banks, James Smith 
and others were the preachers. I often felt 
deep convictions at these meetings. My 
kind parents took much pains to enlighten 
my mind in regard to the great truths of 
the Bible. My early religious training 
was among the Baptists and Methodists 
exclusively. The first deep and lasting 
conviction for sin or the danger of living 
and dying in sin was fastened on my mind 
in hearing a discourse from Adjet Mac- 
guire, a Methodist minister, on the words 
of Jesus, "Come unto me all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden and I will give you 
rest." The sermon was such an exhibi- 
tion of the love of Grod in the gift of his 
son, of the love and condescension of our 
adorable Savior in coming from Heaven 
to this poor earth, in laboring and teach- 
ing, in suifering and dying, and all to 
save poor lost souls such as I felt myself 
to be. Oh ! it was an arrow from the di- 
vine quiver fastened in my heart. I was 



8 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF 

then about fifteen years of age. Most 
likely I should have joined the Methodist 
church then had it not been for the strong- 
objections of my father ; he didn't like 
the doctrine taught by the Methodists. I 
was often religiously impressed by hear- 
ing both Baptist and Methodist sermons 
after the time referred to, but such was 
the influence of parties and ^ects in re- 
ligion that I was thrown back into sin 
and wasted some ten years of my life that 
might have been spent in the service of 
my Master if the good people had been 
united happily in the oneness for which 
Christ so earnestly prayed. Oh, what a 
debt of thankfulness I owe to God for 
sparing my life until I could get clear of 
Satan's net spread out to entangle me 
through the work of a divided church. 
Creeds and names and a party spirit is 
the great hindrance to the conversion of 
the world to-day. It is a Babel of confu- 
sion which causes many poor souls to 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 9 

wander on in sin. May the Lord hasten 
the time when such discord and strife 
will cease and the watchmen upon the 
walls of Zion will speak the same things, 
fulfilling the prayer of the Savior, "that 
they may be one in us that the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me." 



10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



CHAPTER II. 

MARRIAGE — DEEP CONVICTION FOR SIN — EXPERIENCE AND 
BAPTISM — A JOURNEY WITH WILLIAM STUBBS — UNITING 
WITH THE NEWLIGHT CHURCH. 

I was married to Elizabeth, daughter 
of Samuel Boyd, October 12, 1815. My 
companion was a member of the church 
called JN'ewlights. I was greatly preju- 
diced against these people. I thought 
their religion was merely animal excite- 
ment. I once attended a meeting near 
Jacksonburg, Wayne county, Indiana. 
The excitement was carried to a high 
pitch. The jerks were common in those 
meetings. While I was trying to muster 
up evidence to condemn the work I was 
so full of superstition and my mind so 
darkened in religious matters, I remem- 
ber going to the woods to pray to the 
Lord to give me some way or means to 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 11 

decide whether the work was of God or 
not. Why did I not go to the Bible? I 
well knew that T was an unconverted man, 
and I had been strictly tanght that such 
an one could not understand the Scrip- 
tures. I will here state that after nearly 
a half century of my life has been spent 
in reading, praying and preaching the 
Gospel, I am more confirmed in the be- 
lief that this relic of popery, this teach- 
ing that excludes the unconverted from 
learning the will of God by reading the 
Scriptures, is not only erroneous but dan- 
gerous to the souls of men. For several 
years after I was married and settled in 
life, I was in deep trouble about my soul, 
and although much error was mixed with 
my former teaching, yet one great truth 
was firmly fixed in my heart : " You must 
be born again." Wherever I went I was 
followed by these powerful words. I tried 
to shield myself by the errors of the 
churches ; I scrutinized the conduct of 



12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

professors and tried to bring them on a 
level with myself, but this truth still 
rankled in my heart : " You must be born 
again or be forever lost." I went to the 
preachers of different orders ; some would 
say, " stand still and see the salvation of 
God ;" others would say, " pray on till you 
find relief." This last advice I heeded 
most. How could I help trying to do 
something ? There was too much at stake 
to be idle, but what to do I didn't know ; 
I would sometimes leave my work and 
wander in the grove, sometimes kneeling 
to pray, other times weeping and groan- 
ing in great distress. After many days 
spent in this condition, my mind turned 
on the words of the blessed Savior : "In 
my Father's house are many mansions ; 
if it were not so I would have told you." 
— John, xiv : 2. Oh, the love these 
words conveyed ; but may I claim them ? 
I labored for some evidence that I was a 
character embraced in these blessed words. 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 13 

At length other Scripture that I had 
learned came into my mind, and gradually 
and thankfully I settled down into the 
hope that I was converted and saved. 
IN'ow I began to look about to find the 
right church. My parents were Baptists 
of the old school ; my wife and her par- 
ents were Christians. Many of my near 
relatives, whom I greatly esteemed, were 
Methodists. They all seemed to have 
confidence in me and wanted me to unite 
with them. I decided at once that some 
of them must be wrong or they would not 
difi^er so much. I concluded I had better 
apply myself to reading and prayer to 
find the right way. I went among them 
all and joined them in worship and was 
kindly received. I had been taught to 
believe that a converted sinner must be 
baptized. How could I obtain baptism 
without joining the church ? I greatly 
desired to be immersed by a Baptist min- 
ister. I often talked with them on the 



14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

subject. They would say, " Come to the 
church." I answered, "I don't receive 
the covenant of the church as scriptural." 
Finally we were visited by a Seventh Day 
Baptist missionary from the state of 'New 
Jersey. I attended his meeting at the old 
Baptist church on Martindale's creek. 
When he finished his discourse I walked 
forward, though he was an entire stranger, 
I told him in the presence of the congre- 
gation I wanted him to baptize me. He 
seemed surprised, and wanted to know 
why I didn't come to the church. I told 
him I couldn't endorse the covenant. 
After some consultation, I was requested 
to tell my experience. I did so, and was 
approbated. Old Father Platts was re- 
ceived, and we repaired to the water, 
where we were both immersed. This was 
about the year 1818. I now felt happy 
in the belief that I was in Christ's king- 
dom, though not in any of the churches 
of the contending parties. Now I had at- 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 15 

tained a happy and blessed enjoyment of 
the love of God shed abroad in my poor 
heart. I wanted others to come and feast 
with me, so I began to exhort at the dif- 
ferent meetings I attended. I had but 
little learning and but a small store of 
Scripture knowledge ; still I was every- 
Avhere invited and encouraged to go on in 
the good work of exhortation. In those 
days I attended a meeting of the United 
Brethren, conducted by a preacher whose 
name was William Stubbs. He invited 
me to go with him a week or two on his 
circuit. I went, and we had a good time. 
Many of the members of that order were 
pious, good people. While we were rid- 
ing along one day on our way to our next 
appointment, I asked Bro. Stubbs this 
question : '' Were not the persons that 
the apostle commanded to be baptized 
about the same as we call mourners?" 
After a short pause, he replied : "It looks 
a good deal like it ; but it would not do 



16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

for a rule with us. We would get too 
many bad members in the church." Now 
I don't think I had ever heard such a 
thought expressed by any living man at 
that time. Some years after, when I read 
an article from the pen of Bartain W. 
Stone, advocating the doctrine of baptism 
for the remission of sins to believing peni- 
tents, it looked as natural as the face of 
an old acquaintance. 

I left Bro. Stubbs in the neighborhood 
of Connersville. The next meeting I at- 
tended was a Baptist association in a grove 
near Judge Webb's. Here the doctrine 
of the eternal justification of the elect 
was argued with a zeal and talent worthy 
of a better cause. Soon after this I at- 
tended a large protracted meeting of the 
Christian body called Newlights. Here I 
united with the church. When the way 
was open for the reception of members I 
went forward and asked the privilege of 
sjDeaking a few words. This being granted, 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 17 

I remarked that I felt such an anxious de- 
sire for the oneness of the Lord's people 
that I wanted so far as possible to be 
united with all of them. I requested the 
hand of brotherly affection from every 
Christian in the congregation. The hands 
of many did I clas]3 that day that are gone 
home to die no more, and I hope to meet 
them in a land where divisions and par- 
ties and sectarian strivings are never 
known. 

2 



18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



CHAPTER III. 

ORDAIXED TO THE MINISTRY — FIRST SERMON — POVERTY — 
PERSECUTION — MOURNERS UNCOMFORTED — PREACH- 
ING NEAR NEW LISBON — FLATTERY. 

Up to the time of uniting with the 
Christian body of believers I had only 
been exercising my gifts in exhortation. 
I was a long time in an unsettled state of 
mind about trying to preach. I thought 
the preacher must be specially called and 
sent. I labored and prayed for a true de- 
cision of the matter. I felt like it would 
be a dreadful thing to venture to take the 
hol}^ office without a divine call. Finally, 
through the encouragement and strong- 
solicitations of the brethren, I ventured, 
with much diffidence, to undertake the 
work. My first effi)rt in the ministry was 
at Jacksonburg in the year 1820. Several 
of the old preachers were present. I se- 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 19 

lected my text, 1 Cor., ix: 24 : "So run 
that ye may obtain." After I got through 
Father Dooly came forward, extending to 
me his hand said : " Occupy, occupy, my 
son." This gave me much comfort and 
encouragement. I now felt that my way 
was clear to go forward in the work. Some 
time after this I received ordination by 
the imposition of hands of Levi Purvi- 
ance, John Plummer and William Hub- 
bert. I now went into the ministry with 
my whole heart and with all the powers 
of mind and body that I possessed. The 
people were kind, but the thought of giv- 
ing the preacher anything for his time 
and labor was scarcely ever thought of. 
Many of the preachers had to work when 
others were asleep to keep their families 
from starving ; but what was worse, we 
were looked upon by the ministers and 
leaders of the sects generally as poor ig- 
norant enthusiasts. Their meeting-houses 
were closed against us, and showers of 



20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

abuse fell continually upon our j^oor de- 
fenceless heads from almost every pulpit 
in the land. I suppose many of them, 
like Paul, did it ignorantly in unbelief. 
The great cause of the opposition was our 
continual testimony against "human 
creeds" and "party names." We con- 
tended that the Word of God should be 
our guide and the name of Christ should be 
worn by his people. The same war is still 
waged, but the persecution is greatly mod- 
ified since the people have more knowl- 
edge and have laid aside some of their 
prejudice. 

Without knowing any better I preached 
with all my might for nearly ten years 
that faith, repentance and prayer were the 
only divinely appointed means on the sin- 
ner's part for the remission of sins ; and 
that the evidence to the sinner was a 
change in his mind and feelings from sor- 
row to joy. "The oil of joy for mourning 
and the garments of praise for the spirit 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 21 

of heaviness." So we preached. When 
poor sinners would say, "What shall I 
do?" the answer would be in substance, 
" Believe, repent and pray." "But this I ' 
have done," some said, "and still I have 
not found peace and joy and comfort." 
In this condition I have known some to 
linger for months and even years. What 
was the matter ? Ah ! this was a hard 
question for the wisest preacher among 
us. I feel thankful to my heavenly 
Father that the light of truth has shone 
more brightly and opened the way for 
the sinner to come to Christ and know 
that his many and grievous sins are all 
forgiven for his name's sake, who has suf- 
fered and died to redeem and save a lost 
world. Strange, indeed, that so plain a 
truth should be lost in the rubbish of 
human tradition. Why did we not tell 
the poor sinner to arise and be baptized, 
calling on the name of the Lord? Why 
did we not preach as Peter did on the 



22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

Day of Pentecost at the inception of 
Christ's kingxlom on earth ? We were so 
blinded by our wrong teaching that this 
plain truth was hid from our eyes, and 
still it is hid to many honest souls. 

While I Avas preaching among the peo- 
ple called Newlights I was much united 
in labor with my good old father-in- 
law, Samuel Boyd. He was my precep- 
tor and spiritual adviser in my first ex- 
perience in the ministry. By invitation 
we made an appointment at the house of 
old Sister Buck, near New Lisbon, Henry 
county, Indiana. But few meeting-houses 
had been built at this time and some of 
the few were locked against us, so our 
preaching was chiefly in private dwel- 
lings or school-houses. Our first appoint- 
ment at her house was about the year 
1826. I preached from the text, " The 
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God 
is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our 
Lord." I gave satisfaction in my dis- 



ELDEE ELIJAH MAETINDALE. 23 

course and a few sinners seemed to be 
brought under conviction. The influence 
was such that we continued our visits 
once a month. We soon began to make 
disciples. Our first accession was a man 
of very audacious habits, drinking, fight- 
ing and swearing, but he was humbled 
under the power of the Gospel and we 
took his confession or profession, for we 
thought the sinner must be pardoned be- 
fore he was a fit subject for baptism. 
Many a long and tiresome struggle did 
we have at the mourners' bench to obtain 
some evidence that our sins were forgiven. 
I baptized the man — the first person I ever 
immersed. I was doubtful about his 
holding out well, but from all accounts 
he was a soundly converted man. The 
good work went on gloriously at that 
point for years. I was loaded with eulo- 
gies until I was often ashamed. I have 
often found those poor, weak-minded 
brethren who are so ready to praise the 



24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

preacher to his face are almost sure to 
• get offended after awhile and use every 
means at command to crush the same 
preacher. It was so in the New Lisbon 
church. I afterwards displeased them by 
preaching as the Apostle Peter did on 
the Day of Pentecost. 



ELDER ELIJAH MAETINDALE. 25 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE JERUSALEM DOCTRINE CALLS DOWN PERSECUTION — 
VOTED OUT OP THE NEW HOUSE — SOME THINGS LACKING 

CONTROVERSIAL PREACHING — MINISTERS EXHORTED 

TO FAITHFULNESS. 

About the year 1830, I commenced 
preaching faith, repentance, prayer and 
baptism, all connected as so many links 
in the chain of the divine arrangement of 
pardon as taught by Christ and the apos- 
tles. I was soon nicknamed a Campbell- 
ite. Many of the old brethren with whom 
I had long lived in love and fellowship, 
began to turn the cold shoulder and bar 
me out just like the sects had been serv- 
ing us. I had almost embraced the doc- 
trine of baptism as a link in the chain of 
pardon before I ever heard of A. Camp- 
bell ; but when I became acquainted with 
the writings of Campbell, Stone and oth- 



26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

ers I was helped much in understanding 
the Scripture on this point and some oth- 
ers. The first time I ever ventured to 
preach this old Jerusalem Gospel was in 
the cabin of Mother Buck/ near New Lis- 
bon, where we had been holding forth the 
word of life. It made some fluttering in 
the camp, but we went on for awhile with- 
out much trouble. I was successful from 
the very start, and the cause o^ truth 
would have moved on grandly had it not 
been for the opposition of the brethren. 
When they saw the new way would sup- 
j^lant the mourners' bench and its effects 
as the Lord's way of converting sinners, 
a few of the leading spirits went to work 
in great earnest to put me down and stop 
the work. Bv this time the old Christian 
brethren had built a small log meeting- 
house at this place, and they managed to 
get a majority vote that Bro. M.'s new 
doctrine should not be tolerated in their 
meeting-house. There was a minority 



ELDER ELIJAH MAETINDALE. 27 

vote in my favor and some Baptists who 
were converts to the new doctrine, so the 
work went on. By careful, kind manage- 
ment we finally overcame the opposition 
and got nearly^all the old members and 
some of the Baptists united and harmo- 
niously organized on the principles of the 
reformation. Elisha and John Shortridge, 
two ministers, came in from the Baptist 
church and were a great comfort to me 
and helped much to build up the cause in 
j^ew Lisbon. The church flourished 
greatly while the old members remained, 
but some moved away and many have 
been called home, and the church has, to 
a great extent, gone down. One great 
fault with us since we attained to more 
light and truth in the Scriptures is, we 
have failed to bring out the latent talent 
of our members by the exercise of their 
gifts in exhortation and prayer. We have 
not encouraged the brethren to speak and 
pray in public as we should have done. I 



28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

have long desired to see more exhortation 
and prayer in our social meeting. Almost 
every member, young and old, male and 
female, could, by practice, be able to speak 
a few words in public or offer a short 
prayer. This would greatly enliven and 
strengthen the spirituality of the congre- 
gation. 

Our reformation has been careful to 
avoid enthusiasm but could not see the 
danger of stoicism, hence our ordinary 
meetings have been too cold and dry to 
make us happy or convert the unbe- 
lievers. Bro. Samuel Rogers once said 
in a conversation on this subject: "We 
Newlights were so anxious to have all 
Christians united that when we saw the 
Baptists making a move for union, we, in 
our haste to meet them, ran clear through 
the temperate zone and joined them in 
the frigid zone ; but he hoped we would 
all get back to the true Gospel zone after 
awhile." I fear we have never come to 



ELDP:R ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 29 

that warm, life-giving climate yet. Too 
much winter seemingly, and no bright 
birds singing to enliven our souls. We 
have guarded against undue excitement 
Which we looked uj^on as a great fault 
among our religious neigbors, until we 
have become in great danger of coldness 
and formality. In too many cases our 
growth in humility and godliness has not 
kept pace with our advancement in Script- 
ure knowledge. This is much to be la- 
mented. Still we think our brotherhood 
will comj)are favorably with that of any 
other people. Yet, as we claim to be 
nearer apostolic teaching, we ought to 
come nearer apostolic practice. There 
is one thing that might be mentioned as 
an apology for our delinquency in these 
things, that is the continual war that has 
been waged against us by all the creed 
parties. We entered the field amidst the 
continual booming of artillery and the rat- 
tling of small arms. Yet in many cases 



30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

our preachers have been too belligerent 
in their manner of presenting the truths 
of the Bible. Much of the controversial 
preaching of our day has its origin in 
pride. Young preachers are very apt to 
be caught in this snare of the devil. The 
people are fond of such preaching. It 
flatters their pride of opinion and suits a 
cold, backsliding state of religion. 

If ever the success of a return to prim- 
itive Christian piety shall crown our ef- 
forts as reformers, it must begin among 
the preachers. Come, dear fellow-sol- 
diers, come up to the w^ork. The old 
pioneers are soon to pass away. Where 
are the mighty men of God who are to 
fill up the lines as leaders of Zion's hosts? 
Oh, that they may have a burning zeal 
for their Master's cause, in meekness 
instructing those who oppose themselves 
if God per ad venture will give them re- 
pentance to the acknowledging of the 
truth. 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 31 



CHAPTER V. 

PREACHING THE GOSPEL — TRAVELING THROUGH MUD AND 
BRUSH — DESIRE FOR UNION — LOVE FOR THE ERRING — 
THE INDWELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT — ZEAL OF THE 
OLD PREACHERS. 

When I first came to Henry county to 
make a home I was in feeble health. I 
felt anxious to give my whole time and 
strength to the work of the ministry, but 
I was almost in the woods, my family 
large, some in debt on my land, and no 
means to hire laborers. I thought I 
could give two or three days in each 
week to the work of preaching and with 
the balance of my time and the help of 
my family we could, by strict economy, 
get along. So I commenced under this 
arrangement and with the blessings of 
our heavenly Father, I was enabled to 
continue for a number of years. The 



32 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF 

truth prevailed and I was happy. For 
several years there was not another resi- 
dent in Henry county who went abroad 
as an evangelist and who was engaged in 
promulgating the truths that we were 
trying to establish. I traveled over the 
counties of Henry, Wayne, Fayette, Rush, 
Delaware, Madison, and some in Han- 
cock, sowing the seed in all these counties 
and some in Ohio. We sowed and others 
did reap ; we labored and others were par- 
takers of the fruit of our labors. Well, 
be it so. I am now happy in the reflec- 
tion, old and worn out that I am. I re- 
joice in the prospect that the time is near 
when " he that soweth and he that reap- 
eth will rejoice together;" when "he that 
went forth weeping, sowing precious seeds 
will come again rejoicing, bearing j^i^e- 
cious sheaves with him." Most of the 
churches that I had helped to build up 
in the old Christian body were brought 
into the reformation, but some held back 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 33 

contrary to their acknowledged principles. 
We started on the divinely authorized 
ground of no creed but the Bible and no 
name but those found in the Xew Testa- 
ment scriptures. We urged the necessity 
of the union of all Christians as the great 
means for the salvation of a lost world. 
Now we are contending for this same 
great Grospel platform ; but when we 
found that we had not attained to a per- 
fect understanding in every particular 
and that we must follow the light of 
truth wherever it might lead, strange, in- 
deed, that some would fly back and op- 
pose. But so it is with poor fallible man. 
"The leaders of my people do cause them 
to err." These blind leaders, too proud 
to acknowledge themselves in the wrong, 
will have a fearful reckoning at the judg- 
ment seat of Christ. The war that now 
exists between us and the old Christian 
body is to my mind the most unjustifia- 
ble of all the religious controversies of 



34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

the day. It puts a weapon in the hands 
of all the creed parties that they can use 
effectively against us. It has ever been 
a source of deep regret to me that we 
failed to harmonize on Bible grounds. 
Many of our preachers were to blame. 
They failed to exhibit the meekness and 
gentleness, the long forbearance that we 
should feel toward the erring. They cut 
off the ears of their hearers before the 
truth could reach their hearts. When 
the wall of prejudice has become so great 
it can only be removed by love. The 
war would never have been waoed so in- 
tensely if our people had dwelt less on 
tirst principles and more on vital godli- 
ness and the indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit. Then it seems to me we could 
have helped them to get out of their ig- 
norance and blindness. 

Not long ago I attended a conference 
meeting of the old brethren. I was kindly 
and respectfully received, but I thought I 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 35 

could see the workings of that old enemy 
called prejudice in some of their move- 
ments and preaching. One good speaker 
labored hard to prove that faith was all 
that was required of the sinner in order 
to insure his conversion and salvation. So 
then repentance, prayer and baptism must 
go by the board. This case I have given 
shows the failure of my old Christian 
brethren in declaring the whole counsel 
of Grod. JN'ow, I will speak of some of 
our failures. Some of our talented preach- 
ers have taught the people this way : 
^' There is no direct gift of the Holy Spirit 
nowadays, either to saint or sinner." This 
error has attained among some of our 
people, and it has given some grounds to 
our opposers to charge us as a people with 
denying the operations of the spirit en- 
tirely. This error, for it is surely an er- 
ror, has done much injury. Jesus says, 
speaking of the comforter: "Whom the 
world can not receive, but he shall be 



36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

in you that is in his people." If any 
would inquire how the Holy Spirit oper- 
ates in rej^roving the world, I would an- 
swer when the preacher is largely en- 
dowed with the Holy Spirit his preach- 
ing is eifective, and he makes his audi- 
ence feel the power of truth. Now, if all 
our preachers were of that class of which 
it was said they were full of the Holy 
Spirit and of wisdom, would it not make 
a wonderful change in the advancement 
of the church? The preacher must be 
able to impress his audience with the firm 
conviction that he believes these great 
truths, and that with all his heart. Head 
faith won't do ; it must get down deep into 
the heart of the evangelist before he is fit 
to preach the Gospel to a dying world. 
I do not mean that the truth is not spir- 
itual, but I mean that there is a direct, 
immediate and powerful agent in the work 
of the ministry called the gift of the Holy 
Spirit. This indwelling comforter is prom- 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 37 

ised to all Christians, but the preacher 
needs a greater portion than any other in- 
dividual in the church, because he is light- 
bearer and messenger to the people. Oh, 
I remember so many of the old preachers 
whose souls were filled with a burning 
zeal for the Master's cause. We had but 
few men who could read Greek, but we 
read the Bible with prayer often when 
other men were asleep. We were willing 
to sacrifice much of this world's ease and 
comfort in order to win souls to Christ. 
Our whole souls, yes, all our powers, were 
summoned to the great and glorious work 
of saving sinners, comforting saints and 
building up the cause of the blessed 
Master. The times have changed, and 
the preacher has more learning and better 
salaries, but the question is, will they 
draw deeply from the wells of salvation, 
from the eternal fountain of Grod's love? 



38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



CHAPTER VI. 

PREACHING NEAR MIDDLETOWN — WALKING FIFTEEN MILES 
TO FILL AN APPOINTMENT — SAMUEL ROGERS MOVES TO 
THE VICINITY OF MIDDLETOWN — BAPTISM OF BENJAMIN 
AND DANIEL FRANKLIN — PERSECUTION AND POVERTY. 

About the year 1835, I, in company 
with my good brother, Reuben Wilson, 
went to the neighborhood of Middletown, 
Henry county, to try to sow the seed of 
the kingdom in that newly-settled region. 
We held our meetings at the house of 
William Stewart. On our journey we were 
caught in a great rain. The road was bad, 
only a bridle path most of the way. No 
house being near, we were compelled to 
plod on in our wet clothes. When we ar- 
rived at Brother Stewart's we were gladly 
received, and every attention was given 
to make us comfortable. W^hen we were 
rested and refreshed we commenced our 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 39 

meeting and had good attention. Many 
will praise God in a better worM for the 
privilege of hearing the old Jerusalem 
Grospel for the first time in their lives at 
that meeting. I continued to visit them 
as often as I could for years. A church 
was planted there, or rather a congrega- 
tion of believers united, having declared 
their allegiance to Christ and a desire to 
follow him. Brother Samuel Rogers, 
from Ohio, moved and settled among 
them. He was a man of experience and 
much talent and energy in the work of 
preaching the Grospel. We labored to- 
gether for some years, and were greatly 
united in heart and soul as missionaries of 
the cross. We visited several new points 
and sowed the good seed of the kingdom, 
where churches have since been planted. 
I visited the Middletown or Fall Creek 
church once a month for some years. I 
remember one time during the busy sea- 
son I was compelled to make the journey. 



40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

nearly fifteen miles, on foot. I set out 
early in the morning, stopping to rest at 
a cabin near where the village of Cadiz 
now stands. I then pursued my journey 
until I reached Israel Personet's, not far 
from the place of my destination. I had 
several times stopped with him, and was 
always made to feel at home. I supposed 
the little children, who were the only oc- 
cujoants of the house when I arrived, 
knew me. As I felt greatly exhausted 
with my long walk and fasting, I walked 
to a bed and lay down to rest until the 
parents would return. One of the chil- 
dren ran to where her uncle was plowing 
in the field and told him a drunk man 
had come to their house and gone to bed. 
The man hastened to come to their res- 
cue. I had fallen into a sweet slumber, but 
was waked by a heavy tread on the floor, 
and, looking up, saw a man staring in- 
tently at me to make out who the intruder 
was. He soon knew me and laughed 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 41 

heartily at the joke. Late in the evening 
Bro. Personet and wife came home and 
brought the old parents with them. These 
were the parents of Sister Benjamin 
Franklin. Sister Personet soon prepared 
a good repast, and we had a happy even- 
ing, socially and religiously. After hold- 
ing good meetings Sunday morning and 
evening, my good Brother Rogers con- 
veyed me homeward. These were happy 
days ; I love to think upon them yet. 
About this time, or a little later on, we 
held a night meeting at the house of Bro. 
Joseph Robins. I was put forward to 
preach. I read as a foundation from the 
fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, tenth and 
eleventh verses. I dwelt on the power of 
the word of God. At the close I made a 
draft on the faith of the unprofessors pres- 
ent. Benjamin and Daniel Franklin, then 
young men, Daniel not married, came for- 
ward and gave me their hand. We took 
their confession, and by the light of Ian- 



42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

terns and torches we went to the water, 
where Bro. Rogers buried them with their 
Savior in baptism the same hour of the 
night. They soon commenced preaching 
and became men of full stature in the 
Lord's vineyard. They have turned many 
to righteousness. We can look back to 
those days when a few of us poor perse- 
cuted preachers, leaving our homes, trav- 
eling over bad roads, high waters, tearing 
through brush and swamps, from cabin to 
cabin, Avithout pay, our families at home 
without many of the comforts of life, and 
our opposers, like the enemies of the work 
of rebuilding the temple, would say, 
" What do these feeble Campbellites ? If 
a fox would run over their work it would 
soon totter and fall." These were days 
of trial, but the love of Christ constrained 
us. We endured as seeing him who is 
invisible. We trusted in the strong arm 
of Jehovah, who upholds all things by 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 43 

the word of his power. We were feeble 
instruments in the hands of God, and he 
has been pleased to command his blessing 
upon the work. We are permitted, now 
in old age, to sit and hear the Gospel pro- 
claimed by those highly gifted brethren 
that we enlisted and many more whom 
they have enlisted, and that little wave 
of reformation that was set in motion in 
Henry county will roll on, increasing in 
its heavenly course until the Lord comes 
and we shall have the privilege, through 
grace, of bringing our sheaves rejoicing, 
and saying: " Behold thy servant. Lord, 
and the children which thou hast given 
me." This is the hope that inspires me, 
now that I am old and feeble and can toil 
no longer. I can sit and muse upon the 
goodness of God and give thanks to him 
that his mercy has been so great to the 
children of men. 



44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



CHAPTER VII. 

PREACHING AT BENTONVILLE — D. R. VANBUSKIRK — JOHN 
LONGLEY— B. B. FIFIELD — MISSIONARY TOUR — THE 
FRANKLINS START IN THE MINISTRY —ARTHUR MIL- 
LER — GOING AMONG THE CHURCHES TO SEE HOW 
TIIEY DO — EXHORTATION TO PREACHERS. 

In the summer of 1840 I was engaged 
with some other preachers to hold a 
meeting of days near Bentonville in Fay- 
ette county. Those expected to labor with 
me failed to attend. Old Father Banks, 
the same that used to be a Baptist 
preacher at my father's house, was now 
in the reformation and attended with me. 
I was glad to meet him. In the days of 
his strength he was a fine speaker. His 
voice was soft and musical, his language 
partook largely of eloquence and he was 
quite successful as a Baptist preacher, and 
was a great favorite with my dear old 
parents. 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 45 

Our meeting at Bentonville went on 
with great success and rejoicing. About 
twenty noble souls came out and confessed 
their Lord and Savior and were immersed 
during our meeting, which lasted some 
days. 

The work went on grandly at that 
place. During my labors at that point, 
which lasted monthly for about three 
yeai^sf,^' more than one hundred precious 
souls enlisted under the glorious banner 
of King Immanuel. I have attended 
some of their meetings more latterly, and 
they seem to be doing well. That church 
has raised up one of the best preachers 
in the state, Daniel R. Yanbuskirk. I 
used to stop often with his kind old fa- 
ther when D. R. was a boy. His urban- 
ity even at that time seemed to mark him 
out for some high station in coming life. 

The Bentonville church has had a great 
deal of preaching from our most gifted 
brethren and they had great advantages 



46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

in the way of song, as one brother, An- 
drew Cole, was not only a good singer, 
but he raised a large family who were 
almost natural musicians ; and I think 
nearly all of them became church mem- 
bers. Yet the church may not be as 
prosperous as it once was. So many of 
the old members have been called home 
and some still linger on the banks of Jor- 
dan waiting for the summons. Oh ! ye 
time-worn veterans of the cross, you and 
I will soon have mingled our last tear 
with the sorrows of earth and if we are 
faithful a crown of life will be ours. 

About this time I was a co-laborer with 
Brother John Longley, of Fayette county. 
He was an able minister of the Gospel 
and helped much to build up thfe cause in 
many places in Indiana. 

B. B. Fiiield, a preacher from Rush 
county, was also my co-worker. He and 
I were appointed to go as missionaries 
together and visit waste places. My 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 47 

health was very poor, so Ave agreed that 
he would preach half the time and ad- 
minister the ordinance of baptism when 
required. Our first meeting was at the 
house of old Father Johnson, on Buck 
Greek. Here we held a night meeting. 
It was my turn to preach. I labored 
hard and was much exhausted. I made 
a call and four persons came forward. 
As we were about starting to the water 
Mother Johnson came and told me the 
four a^Dplicants were all her children and 
they wanted me to baptize them. I 
told her our arrangement and that 
Brother Fifield was a good baptist. She 
went and talked with her children, then 
came again and said if I were not able to 
go into the water it must be put off. I 
was in a high state of perspiration, the 
night was cold and the ice partly over the 
stream. After a little hesitation I ven- 
tured to go on, trusting in the Lord to 
preserve my health. The stream was 



48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

low and the water proved too shallow 
where I first went in, so I came out and 
w^ent with my boots full of water some 
distance down the stream where we found 
a suitable depth when the ice was re- 
moved. When the baptism had been 
performed and I came out of the water I 
found my legs and feet so numb with the 
cold, they had but little or no feeling. I 
think I spoke to some brother to help me 
until I could walk. The circulation soon 
returned. I went to the house, put on 
dry clothes, went to bed, rested quite well 
and when I arose in the morning felt re- 
freshed and better of my cold than I had 
been for days before, thanks to my Heav- 
enly Father. 

We kept up our missionary work un- 
til Brother Fifield was called to take a 
school and I devoted my time to farm 
work for awhile, preaching at intervals. 

By this time the two Franklins had ex- 
ercised their gifts in the ministry until 



ELDP]R ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 49 

they had become a power in the pulpit. 
Perhaps no man in modern times has 
ever made greater efficiency in learning 
and oratory than did Benjamin Franklin. 
He was possessed of a fine, native talent 
for speaking, which he inherited from his 
mother. Few women in that day were 
gifted with such power in exhortation as 
was Sister Franklin. 

Brother Benjamin Franklin and I made 
several tours into Madison and Delaware 
counties. We made a good impression in 
many places. Some of those places have 
now large churches where we started the 
work. 

In the winter of '42 Brother Arthur 
Miller, one of our best preachers, and I 
held meetings at Plum Creek and Fair- 
view, where good churches have since 
been organized and good houses of wor- 
ship have been built. I love to go among 
the brethren at those places where I helped 
to sow the good seed many years ago. 



50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

Once in a while I find one of niv children 
in the common faith and thev feel near to 
me yet, especially those who have been 
faithful. I feel it a great privilege to im- 
itate the example of Samuel, the old 
prophet of God and Judge of Israel, to 
go round and visit these congregations 
where I labored in the days of my 
strength and see how they do, and give 
them what encouragement I can. I feel 
to rejoice that men of greater ability have 
come onto the stage and yet I sometimes 
fear the people are more filled with love 
for the preacher than with love for Christ. 
Oh ! that they would strive more to imi- 
tate the apostle who could say, "my 
speech and my preaching was not with 
enticing words of man's wisdom but in 
demonstration of the spirit and power, 
that your faith should not stand in the 
wisdom of men but in the power of Grod. 



ELDEE ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 51 



CHAPTER YIII. 

A FLOURISHING CHURCH AT HILLSBORO — THE BRETHREN 
BELIEVE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUDGMENT TO COME, 
BUT OPPOSE TEMPERANCE — A GREAT CONFLICT — TRUTH 
AT LAST VICTORIOUS. 

Some time after I was settled in Hemy 
county I made an appointment to preach 
in Hillsboro, a village three miles north 
of New Castle. There was no house of 
worship, so we met in the grove. I read 
from the book of Daniel : "In the days of 
these kings shall the Grod of heaven set 
up a kingdom," etc. The discourse was 
listened to with marked attention. When 
the meeting was about to close an elderly 
man of Quaker proclivities came forward 
and requested another appointment. This 
was quite unexpected. I knew I was in 
rather a hard part of community. Some 
years before I had been there in company 



52 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF 

witK my old co-laborer, John Plummer. 
We held a night meeting, and got our 
horses shaved most shamefully. So I was 
not greatly encouraged to make an eifort 
in that place ; but when such a man as 
Benjamin Harvey walked forward, and 
with tears in his eyes requested another 
appointment, I felt that I must comply. 
I went again and again and saw the good 
seed was beginning to grow. This same 
old friend Harvey was among the first 
who came nobly up and confessed the 
Savior. jVow the work seemed deep and 
general. At almost every meeting we had 
candidates for baptism. Old Bro. Will- 
iam Canady's house and the school-house 
were our places of worship in cold weather 
and the grove in warm weather. After 
while other preachers came to our assist- 
ance. It seemed for a time like every- 
body would be converted. The brethren 
went to work harmoniously and built a 
nice little frame meeting-house. The 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 53 

membership now numbered about two 
hundred, all in peace and love. But, as 
it has been with every faithful watchman 
who stood upon the walls of zion, there 
were troubles brewing for me. It came 
in this way : There were a number of the 
brethren who were leading members that 
I never could persuade to quit the use of 
ardent spirits as a beverag'e, both for 
themselves and families. After awhile 
the devil or some of his servants put it 
into the head of one of the members to 
start a distillery. By this time the breth- 
ren had purchased a small farm near the 
meeting-house for the use of a preacher. 
They wanted a resident pastor, but in this 
they failed, so they concluded to rent the 
parsonage farm and apply the proceeds to 
pay for preaching, for now the idea was 
beginning to be common that the laborer 
was absolutely worthy of his hire. They 
rented the farm, taking grain rent and 
turning the grain over to the brother who 



54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

ran the distillery to be made into whisky 
and enable the brethren to pay the 
preacher. While matters stood as I have 
named I went to a temperance meeting 
and when the pledge was passed I placed 
my name on record as an abstinence 
man. I told the people I believed the 
Gospel was pledge enough if it was lived 
up to, but I found so many professors 
that failed to keep the pledge of temper- 
ance I thought it my duty to let the 
world know that I was an abstainer from 
religious principles. Moreover, I wanted 
to give every assistance in my power to 
stop the awful ravages of the demon of 
intemperance. My brethren at home 
found no fault with me for enrolling m}^- 
self in the temperance movement. Not 
so at Hillsboro. The news went from lip 
to lip " Bro. Martindale has joined a tem- 
perance society. What must be done?" 
It was decided to send some five or six of 
the brethren to labor Avith me and try to 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 55 

reclaim the erring brother. They came 
and such another day's controversy I 
never want again. They took dinner 
with me and we parted. Sometime after- 
ward I sent an appointment to preach on 
the subject at their meeting-house on 
Sunday afternoon. I went and preached 
Saturday evening and Sunday morning. 
At the close of our morning services a 
brother arose and stated that the after- 
noon discourse could not be preached in 
that house as agreed by the church. I 
felt a strange sensation come over me 
while I yet stood in the pulpit, a feeling 
I never had experienced in a stand for 
divine worship and hope I never will 
again. I didn't say much in retort, but 
announced that I would make the speech 
in the adjoining grove. So we dispersed. 
While we were at dinner, several of the 
brethren insisted that I had better not go 
on to make the speech, but let a Brother 
Hendrix who was present talk a while to 



56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

the people in the house. I yielded to 
their entreaty but never felt sure that I 
did right. The brethren told me some 
time after this, that I could have the 
house on week-day to preach temperance, 
as it was considered too unholy a subject 
to occupy the Lord's house on the Lord's 
day. After my temperance meeting at 
Little Blue River (for that was the name 
they gave the church) I didn't often at- 
tend at that pla.ce. Although time and 
patience have healed the wound, it left an 
ugly scar. Take it all in all it was one 
of the hardest trials I was ever called to 
bear. One brother, and one only, came 
and confessed his fault like a Christian. 
He is gone home, and I hojDe all of them 
will repent of their sins and get home to 
the good world. Since I quit 2:)reaching 
for them they have had some excellent 
preaching from others, but never has the 
work gone on with the same glorious suc- 
cess that it did before our temperance 



ELDER ELIJAH MAETINDALE. 57 

troubles. I have by special invitation 
preached for them a few times in the last 
several years, and I suppose I would be 
a very welcome visitor among them now, 
but I am old and feeble and can not labor 
as I once did. Many of them are my 
children in the common faith and feel 
near to my heart, and I would greatly re- 
joice to see them walking in the truth. 

In conclusion I Avould say, that tem- 
perance principles have been greatly on 
the increase among these brethren ever 
since our great burst-up on the subject. 
May the Lord open every blind eye on 
this all important subject I pray. In 
those days, preaching against the sin of 
intemperance or slavery was condemned 
on the ground that it was mixing politics 
with religion. There are many in the 
church to-day who will not be pleased 
unless these great sins are entirely 
ignored in the work of the ministry. 
Now while I read in God's word so many 



58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

plain and positive commands against 
these great sins, I must be permitted to 
speak out and bear a faithful testimony 
against them. 

I have often had to bear evil treatment 
from some poor misguided brethren, whose 
worldly interests and animal propensities 
have led them astray in these plain mat- 
ters. I now feel thankful to God that he 
has preserved me through all these trials 
and still blesses me with the joys of his 
salvation. 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 59 



BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ON FAMILY TRAINING. 

There are three divinely appointed organ- 
izations in human society. The family, the 
the church and the state. 

The family is the foundation of all human 
society. If this institution is corrupted both 
the others must partake more or less of the 
defect. The union of one man and woman 
in the matrimonial state seems to be clearly 
the Divine plan in the beginning. Polyg- 
amy and slavery, though admitted with cer- 
tain restrictions in the former dispensation, 
were infractions of the Divine law, and, un- 
der the Gospel, were not to be tolerated. 
They both have their origin in sin, and 
never fail to bring down the just judgments 
of God on those who practice them. A happy 
union of man and wife is essential to the 
great work of training children. The force 
of parental example always has a threefold 



60 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

influence on their tender minds, and will 
leave an impress where precept will be for- 
gotten. Immodesty, h^^pocrisy and selfish- 
ness are traits of character that children 
often imbibe from parents. Let them hear 
them talk unkindly of their neighbors, say 
hard things about them ; then let those same 
persons come in, and a wonderful show of 
friendship is displayed. In this way the 
seeds of h^^pocrisy are sown in the child's 
mind. 

Selfishness and even dishonesty in trading 
are often instilled in the child's mind by the 
parents. I have said a few things in regard 
to moral training ; now I Avant to speak of 
religious training. When Moses had re- 
ceived the law from Sinai's fier}^ top, it con- 
tained a special injunction for parents to 
teach to their children : "When thou sittest 
in th}^ house and when thou walkest by the 
way and when thou risest up keep these 
things continually on the child's mind." In 
the Gospel we have a like injunction to the 
parents. "And you fathers provoke not 
your children to anger, but bring them up in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 
Family religion is the oldest religion in the 
world. The form is changed under the Gos- 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 61 

pel but the Lord still holds every parent ac- 
countable for the manner in which they 
bring up their children. They should begin 
the work of impressing their minds Avith Gos- 
pel truths very early. Let the good seed be 
sown and take root before it comes in contact 
with the wicked world. I want to say to 
you, Christian mothers, that the child from 
infancy is in your hands like clay in the 
hands of the potter. '^Just as the twig is 
bent the tree's inclined." You haA^e greater 
power in moulding the characters of your 
precious offspring than all the preachers in 
the land. Some of you will say, ^'AVhat can 
the mother do if the father is a sceptic, a 
scoffer at religion?" AVell, this is truly the 
greatest trial a Christian mother could be 
called to bear. I would say, be true to your 
high and holy profession, read the good 
book and pray much, be patient under trials, 
try to show by your example that you believe 
in the teachings of the blessed Bible. Don't 
be weary in well doing, for in due season you 
shall reap if you faint not. Nearly all the 
great men that have adorned either the 
church or state have had pious, praying 
mothers. 
• Paul says to Timothy, '-When I call to 



62 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

niiiid the unfeigned faith that is in thee, 
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, 
and in thy mother Eunice, and I am per- 
suaded in thee also." You may think dear. 
Christian mother, that it is little use to strive 
against such opposition, but remember, the 
Lord is on your side and will be with you in 
all your trials. He has said, "I will never 
leave thee nor forsake thee." 

I am thankful to my Heavenly Father that 
he gave me a praying mother. She was the 
best teacher I ever had. I can remember even 
to this advanced age, when in my youth sin- 
ners would entice me, how like a mighty 
sentinel would come the counsels and warn- 
ings of my dear mother. She very early 
fixed the thought in my mind that God would 
mark my sin and bring me into judgment 
for doing wicked things. 

The natural affection between mother and 
child gives her a power that no other human 
can possess in turning the young mind to 
God and religion. Then, dear mother, work 
for God and for the salvation of your children. 
Think what tremendous results are con- 
nected with your work. The faithful dis- 
charge of duty by one mother may be the 
means through God's grace of bringing many 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 63 

to the good world. Then, let me say to all my 
dear children and grandchildren, and others 
who may read this: Try to bring up your 
children for heaven, so in the great day you 
may say, ''Here lam. Lord, and the children 
whom thou hast given me." 



64 BEIEF A-ETICLES AND SERMONS OF 



CHAPTER X. 

THE GOSPEL INVITATION. 

Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and 
learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye 
shall find rest to your souls. — Mat. xi, last three verses. 

This text contains a clear and full declara- 
tion of our Savior's great mission as the Son 
of God and Savior of the world. Let us con- 
sider the subject in the following order: 
First. Who are invited? Second. How can 
they come? Third. The great advantage in 
coming. In th'e fourth and last place, The 
awful consequences in not coming. 

The good, old preachers in my youthful 
days, used to tell us that none were embraced 
in this text but penitent sinners. Well, that 
class is invited, and we think the text reaches 
farther, and takes in every one who can be 
induced to listen to the invitation. If the 
hardest-hearted sinner can be made to feel 
the burden and weight of his sins, he is sure- 
ly invited to come to Christ and find rest 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 65 

and peace, and take upon himself the blessed 
yoke. This brings us to the second proposi- 
tion. How can the sinner come to the 
Savior? God has endued man with an 
animal and a spiritual nature. The spiritual 
part can not be satisfied with earthly things, 
but must be brought into fellowship with 
the Creator in order to be happy. In turn- 
ing the sinner from darkness to light, from 
the power of Satan unto God, the first great 
element or power is faith. The object of his 
faith must be Jesus, the Christ, the Savior of 
the world, and that he died for a propitiation 
for our sins. The faith of the sinner must 
look to Calvary. He must believe with all 
his heart, not merely an assent of the intel- 
lect but with the heart, man belie veth unto 
righteousness. Faith purifies the heart, and 
turns the mind to seek after heavenly things. 
Faith saves us from the love of sin. Repen- 
tance and prayer saves us from the practice 
of sin. The work of repentance is always in 
proportion to the thoroughness of faith. 
Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salva- 
tion, not to be repented of. Every step the 
sinner takes from the time he first starts for 
heaven until he arrives safely at the blessed 
mansion is by faith. It is the great moving 

5 



66 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

power to every act of obedience. When the 
sinner is saved from the love of sin by faith, 
and from the practice of sin by repentance 
and prayer, then he is prepared for baptism 
which changes his state, and pardon is 
promised which saves him from the guilt of 
sin. The gift of the Holy Spirit is now 
promised. Because ye are sons (that is ye 
have been adopted into the family), God hath 
sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your 
hearts, crying Abba, Father. Oh, the blessed 
assurance with which the child of God can 
approach the mercy-seat, knowing that he 
has obeyed the Lord in all his blessed com- 
mands. Why do not men come and accept 
the Savior? One says, the Book nowhere 
says faith, repentance and baptism for the 
remission of sins. Well, let us take Matthew, 
Mark and Luke on the great commission 
given to the Apostles. Mark says, ''Go ye in- 
to all the world and preach the Gospel to 
ever}^ creature. He that belie veth and is 
baptized shall be saved, but he that belie veth 
not shall be damned." Matthew says, ''Go 
ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father and of the 
Son and of the Holy Ghost." Luke says, 
"Thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 67 

rise from the dead the third day, and that 
repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached in his name among all nations, be- 
ginning at Jerusalem." 

Now I suppose, these three evangelists de- 
signed to make a plain record of the great 
commission of their Master. Faith must 
come first in the order. The Book plainly 
teaches that Faith must antecede every at- 
tempt to draw near to God. ''Without Faith 
it is impossible to please God." ''He that 
Cometh to God must believe that he is and 
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently 
seek him." But one says, the Lord has 
pardoned many a poor sinner without baptism. 
What is that to thee? Does the commission 
given hold out a promise without baptism? 
Are you not safer in obeying the great com- 
mission? Are you willing to risk j'-our salva- 
tion in disobedience to such plain commands? 
"Great peace have they that keep the law." 
The prophet says, "Oh that thouhadst heark- 
ened unto my commandments, then would 
thy peace have been as a river, and thy 
righteousness as a wave of the sea." 

We have now come to the fourth and last 
proposition, the awful consequences of re- 
jecting the offer of salvation. The sinner 



68 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

has been shown that every one of Adam's 
lost race is included in the Gospel invitation. 
He is a propitiation for the sins of the whole 
world. He gave himself a ransom to be 
testified in due time. Poor sinner, you are 
left without excuse. You will be speechless 
before the judgment seat of Christ. Your 
boat is gliding down toward an awful abyss. 
It will soon meet the rapids which will hasten 
you on to destruction. Are you sleeping 
amid such dangers? God is calling. Jesus 
is pleading, the church is praying for you. 
The ministers are sounding the Gospel call. 
All good beings in heaven and on earth 
feel a deep solicitude for you. Oh, come to 
Christ and find rest to your souls. ''Take 
his yoke upon you and learn of him, for his 
yoke is easy and his burden light." 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 69 



CHAPTER XI. 

A synopsis of a speech delivered at a meeting called 
in compliance with a proclamation of the President, 
in order for humiliation, prayer and fasting. That our 
heavenly Father would be pleased to avert the threat- 
ened destruction of our good government and save this 
great nation from distress and ruin. In the year of 
our Lord, 1862. 

As a starting point we will inquire, first, 
is it right for Christians to bear arms in any 
case? We think Paul, in his letter to the 
church at Rome (thirteenth chapter, first six 
verses ) has placed the matter beyond all cavil 
as to the right and duty of Christians to help 
keep order and suppress lawless attempts 
against the rights of the innocent and against 
a good and righteous government. We con- 
clude, then, that God has ordained human 
or civil governments, and when civil law 
protects the innocent in the enjoyment of 
their rights in person, property or character, 
that the violator of such law shall be pun- 
ished. That the ruler or chief executive 
shall employ the sword when no other means 
will avail to put down offenders and main- 
tain order. 



70 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

In the 'second place we would inquire, Is 
the war now raging in our country one of 
the cases in which the Christian should en- 
gage? I do most conscientiously believe that 
this war, on the part of the loyal defenders 
of the government, is a righteous one. There 
has never been a war since the days of 
Joshua, son of Nun, that could be better and 
more clearly defended on principles of right 
and justice. 

Our fathers fought and bled to procure for 
us the best government on earth, with one 
exception ; that was, they allowed slavery to 
be incorporated in their constitution and by- 
laws. How strange that after being so sig- 
nally blessed of God in their struggle for lib- 
erty, that they should refuse the same bless- 
ing to the poor degraded African. If the 
friends of liberty could have excluded slav- 
ery from our constitution, what rivers of 
blood and tears it would have prevented. 
When that venerable body of wise and patri- 
otic men from every state in the Union met 
at Philadelphia in 1787 to form our present 
constitution, with the great Washington in 
the chair, and the venerable Franklin and 
many of the wisest men of the age in conven- 
tion, while slavery was young and weak and 



ELDEE ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 71 

while Mr. Mason of Virginia and Governor 
Morris of Pennsylvania and other speakers 
were making the ears of slave-holders tingle, 
why did they not vote the monstrous iniquity 
out of the constitution at once and be done 
with its dreadful consequences? Ah! pride 
and selfishness were too strong. Still the 
friends of liberty seemed to hope that the 
great curse would die out and give place to a 
more enlightened and happy state of society. 
This was a vain hope, as facts in after years 
will testify. After this shameful oppression 
had gone on gaining strength from year to 
year, its friends finally concluded that it 
should spread its dark wings and cover the 
entire land. Having ruled the nation so 
long, they were unable to bear defeat in the 
election of a president, but must lay foul 
hands on the ship of state and resolve to sink 
it or perish in the attempt. Now what could 
we do but rally to the conflict and try to save 
the nation from anarchy and ruin? Then 
have not our brethren done right in march- 
ing to the field of battle trusting in the Lord, 
whether living or dying, for the righteous- 
ness of their cause? One might say, If your 
cause is so plainly good, why have not your 
armies been more successful? Why have 



72 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

the Union armies suffered so many disasters 
on the field of battle? Well, it may be with 
us as it was with the children of Israel when 
they were called to go to war with their 
brother Benjamin. The tribe of Benjamin 
were the aggressors. They were wholly at 
fault. Yet they were victorious in the first two 
battles, more than 40,000 slain of Israel. Wh}^ 
was it so? Certainly because they trusted in 
themselves and not in the Lord. We may 
have been too confident in regard to our 
numbers and strength ; besides, too many of 
our people in the free states have taken sides 
with the oppressor against the poor, down- 
trodden slave. We have lived in ease and 
splendor on the products of his unrequited 
toil. The God of heaven is about to vindi- 
cate the claims of his eternal justice before 
this nation. 

Dearly beloved brethren and friends, let 
us be careful to stand in our lot. Let us ren- 
der to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
to God the things that are God's. As Chris- 
tians let us watch and pray and strive to 
keep ourselves in the love of God. Let us 
not be weary in well-doing, for in due sea- 
son we shall reap if we faint not. Oh! let 
us mingle with our prayers daily at a throne 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 73 

of grace, for ourselves, for our children, for 
the advancement of our Savior's kingdom, 
and for our beloved country, that our heav- 
enly Father in his great mercy may be 
pleased to dispel the dreadful war cloud that 
hangs frightfully over our heads and let the 
glorious sun of righteousness and peace 
shine once more upon our land and cheer our 
poor, desponding hearts. When that bane 
of moral purity, that bone of contention be- 
tween the North and South, that outrage on 
the natural rights of a fellow-man, shall be 
done away with, then will the North and 
South be at peace and join in the work of 
colonizing and Christianizing the African 
race in this and other lands. For such a 
glorious consummation as the result of the 
great affliction we are now suffering, let us 
all devoutly pray. 



74 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 



CHAPTER XII, 



SERMON ON PRAYER, 



Jesus spake a parable unto them to this end, that 
men ought always to pray and not to faint. — Luke 
xviii : 1. 

Prayer is the desire of the soul, either ex- 
pressed or mentally employed. There is but 
one prerequisite to prayer, and that is un- 
feigned faith in the Son of God as our Savior. 
The question has been debated slightly, 
whether a penitent sinner ought to be en- 
couraged to pray before he was baptized. 
Paul the Apostle did pray, and was encour- 
aged to go on to obedience, calling on the 
name of the Lord. Paul in his letter to the 
Romans (tenth chapter), after quoting the 
language of the prophet Joel, says, " But how 
shall they call on him in whom they have 
not believed ? " as much as to say, prayer is 
admissible in all cases where there is faith. 

I think the reason why any one ever 
doubted on this plain matter was, that we 
had become sensible of the error in our for- 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 75 

mer teaching, which was that the sinner 
must continue praying and wait for the evi- 
dence of his pardon before he was a fit sub- 
ject for baptism. How common it is in try- 
ing to avoid one extreme to get into another. 
Now, we think the awakened convicted soul 
would breath out prayer to God if his tongue 
was taken out. Let the sinner get the eyes 
of his understanding opened so that he can 
see his condition by the light of divine truth, 
and he will pray like the publican, ''God be 
merciful to me a sinner." While he is pray- 
ing let him go on to obedience and his sal- 
vation is sure, though men and devils should 
oppose. 

Prayer in the closet. ' 'When thou prayest, 
enter into thy closet, and when thou hast 
shut the door, pray to thy Father who seeth 
in secret, and He shall reward thee openly." 
Here is a privilege for the Christian, more 
blessed than the common walks of life, and 
yet we fear many are living continually in 
neglect of this plain duty. 

The pride of the heart in man has caused 
him to try to counterfeit almost every com- 
mand of God; but here is one that seems to 
preclude all attempts at hypocrisy. The 
Pharisees prayed to be seen of men, per- 



76 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

haps some poor hypocrite may practice the 
same nowadays; but to enter into the secret 
chamber or the lonely grave, where no eye 
but the eye of God is upon us, there to 
meet our Father and hold sweet communion 
with him, to pour out our sorrows and make 
known our desires, with the blessed assur- 
ance that his eyes are over the righteous, and 
his ears are open to their prayers. 

In the closet of prayer we are shut out 
from the world. We are in company that 
belongs not to earth. Oh, what a blessed 
privilege for poor, tempted, downcast souls. 
How many heavy hearts have been comforted, 
and their burdened souls relieved in the 
closet of prayer. Oh children, lovers of God, 
and lovers of the brethren, don't neglect your 
closet of prayer. Let every earthly enjoy- 
ment give place to this high calling of God 
in Christ Jesus. Prayer in the family. I 
want to encourage my children and my 
brethren in this important duty. A family 
of professing Christians without an altar of 
prayer, is like a field of grain without a fence. 
The little foxes that spoil the tender vine are 
likely to get in, and do Satan's work in that 
family. 

How can parents bring up their children 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 77 

in the nurture and admonition of the Lord 
without an altar of prayer? How can the 
young mind be early impressed with the 
great truths of the Gospel, if the parents 
treat so lightly this great Bible command, 
and their voices are never heard in prayer or 
thanksgiving to God. I believe it is seldom, 
if ever, the case, that great men in the church 
descend from professors that never kept an 
altar of prayer in their house. The dying 
words of that great and good man, B. W. 
Stone, addressing his wife and others, were: 
'^Tell my brethren, their religion will avail 
nothing unless it brings them on their knees 
before God at the mercv-seat." 

Study what you need and what God has 
taught you to ask for. Come in faith ; come 
with the simplicity of a little child. Don't 
think you must have much fluency, but with 
all humility let your requests be made known 
to the Lord . Jesus prayed the same prayer 
over and over again when the great scene of 
his suffering for a lost world was near at 
hand. Prayer has been authorized in the 
public worship ever since God has had a peo- 
ple on the earth. Under every dispensa- 
tion, patriarchal, Jewish and Christian, 
the divine service has been connected with 



78 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

supplication, intercession and thanksgiving. 
All the members should try to qualify them- 
selves to lead in the prayers of the church. 

We will now sum up some of the prom- 
ises and works of our heavenly Father in 
order to encourage us to pray. First, the 
promises : ' '^ Ask and you shall receive, for 
every one that asketh receiveth, and he 
that seeketh findeth, and to him that 
knocketh it shall be opened." " How much 
more shall your heavenly Father give the 
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." ''And 
will not God avenge his own elect that cry 
unto him day and night." These and many 
other promises has the Lord made to encour- 
age his people to pray. Now let us look at 
some of the wonderful works that God has 
done in answer to prayer. While Moses 
prays the army of Israel prevails over their 
enemies on the field of battle. While Joshua 
prays the sun stands still in Gibeon and the 
moon in the valley of Ajalon. Hannah 
prays and Samuel is born. Daniel prays and 
the commandment comes to restore a cap- 
tured nation to their long lost liberty. Elijah 
praj^s and the heavens give rain and the 
earth is again fruitful after a drought of 
three vears and six months. Paul and Silas 



ELDEE ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 79 

pray and the prison doors fly open and their 
feel are loosened from the stocks. The breth- 
ren pray and Peter is taken out of prison by 
an angel of God. All this and much more 
has the Lord done to encourage us always to 
pray and not to faint. 

" Restraining prayer we cease to fight, 

Prayer makes the Christian armor bright, 
And Satan trembles when he sees 
The weakest saint upon his knees." 



80 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMON^S OF 



CHAPTER XIII. 

LETTER TO CHURCH MEMBERS. 

Dear Brethren — You have been called 
from darkness to light. If true to your high 
and holy profession, you have been trans- 
lated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, and 
the good Shepherd claims you for his sheep. 
He says, ''My sheep hear my voice and fol- 
low me. They know not the voice of stran- 
gers but will flee from them." I once read 
a fable like this: A crafty old wolf had 
long watched an opportunity to make a break 
on a certain flock of sheep, but the faithful 
shepherd had always defeated his plans. At 
last the wolf hit upon the scheme to counter- 
feit the person and voice of the shepherd. 
So he clothed himself in the shepherd's attire 
and took the crook, that the shepherd used, in 
his paws, and raised himself on his hind feet 
and approached the flock. The sheep were 
completely deceived, and came running and 
bleating with much delight. The wolf elated 
with his success, concluded to make an effort 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 81 

to imitate the voice of the shepherd, so he 
could induce the flock to follow him and 
make them an easy pray; but when he raised 
his voice, behold, it was the hideous voice of 
a wolf. The sheep took fright and run in 
every direction to make their escape. The 
application of this fable is to show ' that 
Christ's people can never be deceived while 
they are used to listening to the good Shep- 
herd's voice. The great Father above said, 
^'This is my beloved Son, hear him." Oh, 
Christian brethren, listen daily to the voice 
of the good Shepherd. He is able to lead 
you through green pastures and beside the still 
waters. Let your delight be in the law of 
the Lord, and in his law meditate day and 
night. 

Very many who profess to be Christ's 
sheep are feasting their minds on vapid liter- 
ature, instead of looking to the great Shep- 
herd for their daily food. Our renewed na- 
ture must be called into exercise or we will 
loathe the heavenly manna. We may refuse 
the food that the good Shepherd offers, until 
our lean souls become like the barren desert 
waste. ^^If a man abide not in Me he is 
cast forth as a branch and is withered." 
6 



82 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 



CHAPTER XIV.. 

OBJECT AND FORM OF LOCAL CHURCHES. 

All who have been born of God according 
to His word are in the kingdom or body of 
Christ. Yet the law requires a local organi- 
zation or church in the less or particular 
sense, uniting believers in one family in 
order to fulfill the great mission intended, to- 
wit : building up believers, converting and 
saving the lost, and at all times giving liglit 
to the world. '^ Church of Christ" should 
be their family name, and "Christian" 
should be tlieir individual name, and the 
Holy Scriptures should be the guide of their 
daily walk and conduct. The ofticers of said 
church, as designated by divine authority, 
are elders and deacons. The elder is some- 
times called overseer or bishop. The elders 
and deacons are to be chosen by the congre- 
gation if they have in their number men of 
such qualifications as the law of God re- 
quires. If all are lacking in those gifts re- 
quired, let them wait. I have known great 



ELDEE ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 83 

harm arising from men serving as elders who 
had no ability either as teachers or rulers. 
When suitable men are found and the church 
has agreed that they shall be inaugurated, 
let a day be set apart for their ordination. 
Call one or two preachers and let all meet, 
fasting, and join in prayer that God will 
bless those persons in the discharge of all 
their duties. Let some aged preacher, if 
present, lay his hands on them as the Apostle 
enjoins in the name of the Lord, giving them 
such charge and instruction as the Word of 
God will warrant. If the congregation is not 
able to hire a pastor or evangelist, let them 
appoint their social meetings and try to be in 
their places for worship every Lord's day. 
The church historian says the worship of the 
early disciples, when they met on the Lord's 
day, consisted in reading the Scriptures, 
prayers, songs, and commemorating the Sav- 
ior's death in breaking bread. That church 
that habitually fails to worship on the Lord's 
day in the absence of a preacher is not apos- 
tolic. They need more zeal and love for 
Christ and his cause. If I am not very much 
mistaken, after trying many years to serve 
God and build up his cause on earth, there is 
and ever has been more hindrance to the ad- 



84 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

vancement of Christ's kingdom from the lack 
of devotion and energy among our people 
than from all the opposition that has been 
brought to bear against us. Pray without 
ceasing and in everything give thanks, is an 
injunction that we overlook. We need to try 
to break the spell that binds us down to 
earth, and rise in the might and power 
that God has given us. Every member 
should feel as though the prosperity of the 
church and the conversion of the world de- 
pended greatly on their acting well their part 
in the house of God. 

If all who profess Christ and have their 
names enrolled upon the church book were 
w^alking in the light, their lives pointing to 
Christ, the great atoning sacrifice that takes 
away the sin of the world, then the Gospel 
would have power over the hearts of the chil- 
dren of men. 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 85 



CHAPTER XV. 



ON EXHORTATION. 



Exhortation, admonition and persuasion 
are words of similar import. 'The work 
pointed out by these differs from teaching. 
Teaching requires a higher grade of qualifi- 
cations than exhortation. To teach is to im- 
part knowledge. To exhort is to induce a 
person to obey the Lord or to practice what 
they already know. The former is to en- 
lighten the understanding, the latter is to 
move the affections, to awaken the powers of 
the soul. Exhortation is a work of the high- 
est importance to the church. It is the work 
of every member, from the highest to the 
lowest. It gives scope to the most exalted 
flights of the greatest orator, while it finds 
work for the weakest saints. One reason 
why the work of exhortation is so much neg- 
lected is because the pride of the human 
heart has prompted many to desire to 
be teachers and engage in the work who 
are not qualified and of course not profitable, 



86 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

while the work of exhortation is greatly neg- 
lected, even in our public worship. This ac- 
counts for the lack of many useful gifts that 
might be cultivated if our churches set a 
higher value on the work of exhortation. 
The Apostle, in writing to the Hebrew breth- 
ren, commanded them to exhort one another 
daily while it is called to-day, lest any of 
them should be hardened through the deceit- 
fulness of sin. From this language we un- 
derstand that exnortation is not confined to 
the worshiping assembly, but is a daily duty 
that devolves upon Christians. If we know 
that any of our associates have gone astray, 
we ought to persuade them daily and never 
rest until they reform. Let parents exhort 
their children. Christian mothers, I ask 
you, do you plead with your children, be- 
seeching them to turn away from evil ways 
and obey the Lord? Finally, my brethren, 
fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, all 
that love God and keep his commandments, 
remember you are the light of the world, 
the salt of the earth. Oh! let an old, 
worn and feeble servant, now in the eve- 
ning of his days, admonish you to more en- 
ergetic work in the cause of our Great Re- 
deemer. 



ELDEE ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 87 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 
ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth 
to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and 
five were foolish. They that were foolish took their 
lamps but took no oil with them ; but the wise took oil in 
their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom 
tarried thej^ all slumbered and slept. And at mid- 
night there was a cry made, ^'Behold the bridegroom 
Cometh. Go ye out to meet him." Then all those 
virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the 
foolish said unto the wise, give us of your oil for 
our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, 
not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, but go 
rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 
While they went to buy, the bridegroom came and 
they that were ready went in with him to the marriage? 
and the door was shut. — Mat. xxv. 

This parable is taken from the eastern 
mode of celebrating marriages. Ten virgins 
were selected to introduce the bridegroom in- 
to the bride chamber. These virgins were 
all dressed in uniform, representing purity 
and innocence. They were to repair to the 
house of the bride in the evening with their 



88 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

lamps burning, each one having a vessel 
of oil to supply her lamp. Here they were 
to await the approach of the bridegroom, 
which was sometimes quite late in the night. 
While they were waiting for a groomsman to 
announce the near approach of the bride- 
groom, they all became drowsy and went to 
sleep. 

The kingdom of heaven in this parable 
means the kingdom that Christ was about to 
establish on earth. The ten virgins represent 
the subjects of this kingdom from its in- 
cipiency until the Lord comes. The bride's 
house means the eternal mansions above. 
The lamp is the outward profession, the oil 
in the vessels is the Christian graces or the 
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. While the 
bridegroom tarries they all slumber and sleep, 
they are not watching and are taken by sur- 
prise. The wise had not attended to their 
lamps until they were almost gone out. The 
foolish let their lamps go out and no oil to 
renew them. 

We will now try to examine the subject ac- 
cording to the above statement. Those vir- 
gins must all have on the right garment. 
They must all have a lamp. The}^ must all 
have access to vessels of oil, to keep up the 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 89 

light. All these things are necessary for a 
proper church relation. Now, we suppose 
there are but few persons who come to the 
church who are not honest in making the 
good confession. There may be a few who 
never were moved by the Spirit of Truth. 
They were hypocrites from the beginning, 
and soon fall off and show their true charac- 
ter. They never had the robe and the burn- 
ing lamp in reality. But we think the fool- 
ish virgins denote those who honestly made- 
a profession and perhaps ran well for a time, 
but they didn't strive against forbidden 
things. Riches, honors and the pleasures of 
the world and all its allurements crowded into 
their hearts, causing them to forget the mercy- 
seat, and the girdle of truth was cast aside, 
and the waning lamp could not be renewed 
because the vessels of oil were empty. We- 
fear there are many professors in this day 
who hold church membership whose lamps 
are gone out. ■ They have failed to form a 
Christian character and are not giving light 
to the world. One Christian can not supply 
another with heavenly graces. Such blessed 
attainments are not transferable. We must 
go to the great Giver of all good, who has an 



90 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

inexhaustible store of blessings for his faith- 
ful children. 

The foolish virgins were too stupid to con- 
sider their sad case. Their lamps gone out, 
no oil to renew them, and in this condition 
they went to sleep. Just so w^e find it is with 
poor backsliders. The hardest of all is to 
get them awake. They seem to be dreaming 
that all is well. No exhortation, reproof or 
admonition will avail anj^thing while they 
remain in this spiritual slumber. But we 
must not cease the work of trying to reclaim 
and save them. Try to awaken them to a 
sense of their danger, and a need of oil in 
their lamps to prepare to meet the bride- 
groom. We now come to consider the fact 
that the wise virgins while waiting for the 
call to go out and meet the bridegroom be- 
came drowsy and went to sleep. They also 
seemed to be in danger of letting their lamps 
go out. It has long been a point unsettled 
among divines, whether the church will be in 
a flourishing or declining state when the 
Lord comes. This parable seems to favor the 
latter opinion. Paul, Peter and Jude all 
speak of a decline in spiritual things in the 
latter or last days. Our Savior's parables, 
many of them, hold forth the idea that the 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 91 

greater part of professors of religion will be 
taken by surprise and not *be found watch- 
ing when the Lord comes. When we look at 
the present state of the professing Christian 
world, and then look in the Bible and ex- 
amine closely the character there laid down 
for Christians to fill, there seems to be an awful 
failure. Some contending for creeds and 
parties, and some that have taken the Bible 
alone for their creed and ought to be pat- 
terns of piety and holiness are not giving 
light to the world. So it is, and perhaps it 
will be until the Lord comes. At all events, 
we may safely conclude that the parable un- 
der consideration was intended as a warning 
to all Christians not to go to sleep and let 
their lamps go out. . 

I believe in a millenium, but whether it 
will take place before or after the resurrection 
of the Lord's people is not so plain. My 
strongest impression is that the church will 
be cold and the world will be wicked when 
Jesus comes and that the millenium will be 
after the first resurrection. Yet I am happy 
to think it will be right as the Lord is pleased 
to have it, and so let it rest. Now, we come 
to the closing scene of the parable. They 
that were ready went in with him to the 



92 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

marriage, and the door was shut. How in- 
describably grand and glorious will be the 
coming of the Lord. The prophet Daniel, 
says, ''I beheld till the thrones were cast 
down and the ancient of days did sit whose 
garments were white as snow, and the hair 
of his head like the pure wool. His throne 
was like the fier3^-flame, his wheels as burn- 
ing lire. A fiery stream issued and came 
forth before him. Thousands of thousands 
ministered unto him, and ten thousand 
times ten thousand stood before him. The 
judgment was set and the books were 
opened." 

Paul in his letters to Thessalonians says, 
"The Lord Jesus will be revealed from 
heaven with his mighty angels in flaming 
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not 
God and obey not the Gospel." Again, ''the 
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with 
a shout, with the voice of the archangel and 
the trump of God. The righteous all safe in 
the everlasting mansions, and the door shut. " 
The awful sentence comes to those who fail 
to enter "Depart from me all you that work 
iniquity." Among all that will be con- 
demned when the Lord comes, none will be 
so sadly disappointed as the careless, prayer- 



ELDEE ELIJAH MAETINDALE. 93 

less professors, represented by the foolish 
virgins. Dear brethren, let us take warning 
from the Savior's own lips. Let us have our 
lamps trimmed and burning, and be read}^ to 
meet the bridegroom when he comes. Then 
we will not be alarmed when we hear the 
voice of the archangel, and the trumpet that 
shall awake the sleeping dead. Then we 
shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the 
air, and so forever be with the Lord. This 
is the embodiment of the Christian's hope. 
It holds the vessel while the waves run high. 
Though the storm may be raging, all is safe 
while the anchor hope enters to that within 
the vale whither the forerunner is for us 
entered, even Jesus, our great high priest. 

"A hope so great and so divine, 
May trials well endure, 
And purify our souls from sin. 
As Christ himself is pure." 



94 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 



CHAPTER XYII. 

RELIGION AND POLITICS. 

Some professors of religion are very sensi- 
tive about politics in the pulpit. I always 
think a man must have something bad in 
his politics when he is so easily offended in 
this matter. Two objects should be kept in 
view in the administration of civil laws ; one 
is the purity of the body politic and the other 
is to look after the temporal demands of the 
people. Now all that part of politics that is 
connected with justice and righteousness has 
to do with the morals of the people, and is 
justly a pulpit theme. The Apostles lived 
under a monarchial form of government and 
they commanded prayers to be offered for 
kings and for those in authority, that right- 
eous laws might be enacted. In our govern- 
ment. Christians have the power to help 
mould the laws, and they are responsible 
to God for all their influence in this 
direction. How can Ave expect the govern- 
ment to be for the punishment of evil doers 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 95 

and for the praise of them that do well if the 
church with holds itsinfluence? No great 
political reform can be brought about while 
the pulpit maintains silence on the question, 
unless it should come in the form of a great 
and bloody revolution. During the long 
years of oppression to the colored people, the 
preachers were forbidden to cry out against 
the sin even in the North. If some ignorant 
preacher would stand in the pulpit and tell 
the people that slavery was a divine institu- 
tion and tolerated by the Bible and even at- 
tempt to put a holy stamp and seal upon the 
auction block, he was looked upon as being a 
Bible preacher. But let the true man of God 
come to the front bearing a message of loA^e 
to God and love to our fellow-men, let him 
point out the slave dealer and say, " Woe 
unto him that buildeth his house by unright- 
eousness and his chambers by wrongs ; that 
useth his neighbor's service without wages 
and giveth him naught for his work." This 
would have been classed political preaching and 
would have called down never-ending curses 
upon the head of the poor defenseless preacher 
who was bold enough to publicly utter such 
words. Well, we have had our school of 
bloodshed, and as its dark chapters were un- 



96 BKIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

folded, they seemed to all point toward 
breaking the chains and letting the oppressed 
go free. Yes, that was to be the sequel — the 
closing scene of the great drama. Now it is 
ended, can the preacher be permitted to talk 
about dealing justly and loving mercy? No, 
not if he means dealing justly with the col- 
ored people ; that would be bringing politics 
into the pulpit. 

I knew a case where a church became 
horrified at their pastor for saying a few 
words in a discourse to the effect that slavery 
had drawn down awful judgments on our 
country, and he feared that we as a nation 
had not repented as much as we should. 
Those who attempt to guard the pulpit are 
generally a class who need the very preach- 
ing they are trying to shut off. Paul 
preached against political sins and every 
other kind, and Martin Luther, when he set 
himself like steel against the Roman Catholic 
Church, had to meet both church and state 
combined. When the nation endorses a 
great sin, that sin has become popularized, 
and needs the church to rally its forces in 
every way possible to try to counteract the 
evil. No true man of God will help politic- 
.ally to make strong the nation's wrongs. If 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. . 97 

he must stand alone, let him free himself 
from complicit}^ in what he knows to be 
wrong. The angel above records our deeds 
and our influence is lasting as eternity. 

7 



98 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

WHERE IS THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST? 

There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are 
called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, 
one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above 
all and through all and in you all.— Eph. iv : 4, 5, 6 v. 

Here are seven units. The first three rep- 
resents the church in its embodied or united 
form. One body, one spirit and one hope. 
The second three are to represent the church 
as individuals. So Paul says, "Now ye are 
the body of Christ and member in particu- 
lar." So then each member comes into the 
body by one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 
and have received one spirit and one hope. 
God the Father of all dwells in them. Oh, 
what wonders of love and mercy to be de- 
livered from the kingdom of darkness and 
translated into the kingdom of God's dear 
Son. We find the church of Christ made up 
of sinners, saved by grace, saved by the 
blood of Christ, saved by faith, saved by re- 
pentance, saved by baptism, saved by hope. 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 99 

All these are spoken of by the Apostles as 
having saving power. 

We have shown that there is one true 
church, and all who are in this one body 
have one Lord, one faith and one baptism. 
Some religious people will say, yes, that is 
Bible doctrine, but it does't mean water, it 
means baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus 
said, ''Except ye be born of water and of the 
Spirit, ye can not enter into the kingdom of 
God;" and the Apostles were commanded 
"To teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the 
• Holy Ghost;" and Paul says in his Collossian 
letter "having been buried with him in bap- 
tism." Peter says, "the like figure wherein, 
baptism doth now save us. " We will have to 
concede that the one baptism is of water, or we 
will have to trample on some of the plainest 
Scripture recorded in the w ord of divine 
truth. Yet we are not so sanguine as to be- 
lieve that all who come to the ordinance of 
baptism are true disciples of the blessed Mas- 
ter. The kingdom of heaven is like a net 
cast into the sea, it gathers of every kind. 
"The seed sown sometimes falls into stony 
ground, or among thorns, or by the wayside, 
but when it falls into good and honest hearts. 

Life. 



100 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

it brings forth some thirty, some sixty, some 
an hundred fold. 

The artful destroyer of souls is gaining a 
great victory now in the world on account of 
divisions, sects and party strife. The salva- 
tion of a lost and ruined world is being 
greatly prevented, and the object of our 
Savior's deatbis being defeated by the jarring 
creeds of the religious world. Now if the 
above thought is true, how careful should 
every church member be to know that he is 
contending earnestly for the faith once de- 
livered to the saints. 

Paul warns the churches against divisions, 
and exhorts the disciples all to speak the 
same things. In the divided state of the 
Christian Avorld, two extremes have become 
apparent. One is to depend entirely on the 
work of the Holy Spirit and ignore God's 
positive commands. The other is to depend 
too much on the positive commands and 
neglect" that part that tends to building the 
moral and spiritual interests of the church. 
Some of God's commands are right of them- 
selves, such as, "husbands love your wives," 
"children obey your parents," but the com- 
mand to a penitent sinner to be baptized is 
positive law, and is right because it is com- 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. IQl 

manded. Our first parents fell by dis- 
obedience to positive law. Circumcision was 
a positive law. To look on the brazen ser- 
pent, the healing of the Assyrian officer. 
The sounding of the Rani's Horn at the siege 
of Jericho and many such things were of the 
order of positive law. When we read of the 
fall of Adam, the fall of the Israelites in the 
wilderness, and all the judgments that have 
been melted out to defaulters of positive law, 
should we not tremble at the thought of dis- 
obedience? When we hear infidels scoff at 
the divine commandments, we are not sur- 
prised, but it is sad to hear professors of re- 
ligion making light of. these things, calling 
them outward forms, only the shell. It has 
no validity in the work of grace. It is a 
mere ceremony, etc. 

But some one says, don't you see how easy 
it is for a person to be baptized and join the 
church, attend to the Lord's Supper and still 
be a hypocrite? Yes, I see all that, and 
lament that some fail to show the fruits of a 
godly life. But on the other hand, don't 
you see how easy it is for a person to make 
great pretentions to spiritual enjoyments and 
talk of heart-felt religion, and still be a hypo- 
crite? The good, old prophet Samuel, told 



102 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

Saul once, that "obedience was better than 
sacrifice, and hearken was better than the 
fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of 
witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity 
and idolatry." Now, I do most confidently 
believe in the gift of the Spirit as promised 
to the Christians in the Gospel age, but we 
are taught that the world can not receive this 
heavenly visitor. The temple of the heart 
must be cleansed before it can receive this 
holy guest. Hence, all this praying for the 
Holy Spirit to come down and convert sinners 
is unscriptural. "Let the sinner listen to the 
truths of the Gospel, and try to exercise faith 
in Christ, repent of his sins and be baptized, 
calling upon the name of the Lord, then 
arise to walk in newness of life, and they have 
the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit as 
an abiding comforter." Then let them add 
to their faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, 
patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and 
above all charity, that cover etli a multitude 
of sins. Oh, how I would rejoice to see the 
church arise from its stupor, put on its 
beautiful garments and come forth bright as 
the sun, fair as the moon and terrible as an 
army w^ith banners. Lord increase the faith- 
ful band who are working for the purity of 
the church. 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTENDALE. 103 



CHAPTER XIX. 

LETTER TO MY BROTHER JOHN. 
(Written, May 23, 1865.) 

Dear Brother — This day, four years ago, 
we, with some others, made a visit to our 
dear m.other's grave. While we stood around 
that spot made sacred to us b^^the loved form 
that was here interred twenty-two years and 
seventeen days before, how natural it was 
for our minds to travel back to our infantile 
and youthful days. Here mouldering back 
to dust are those kind hands that ministered 
to my wants when I lay helpless on her lap. 

I was her first born, and so I was cared 
for with more than usual interest. How 
many painful hours she spent in watching 
and caring for me and for you, my brother, 
and for all her children. Tender and affec- 
tionate, always ready to face danger, priva- 
tion and toil to make us safe and comforta- 
ble. But more than every natural tie, our 
mother was one that possessed, in a large de- 
gree, the religion of Jesus Christ. Her faith 



104 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

and her earnest prayers were a great means 
under God of bringing you and me into the 
blessed Savior's fold. Our father was a kind' 
parent, and became religious when I was 
very young. I well remember when he was 
baptized in a branch of the Little Miami, 
Warren county, Ohio, b}^ a minister whose 
name was Joshua Carmin. Father and 
mother were then both religious, both mem- 
bers of the Baptist Church. Mother joined 
the Baptist when she was quite young, in 
South Carolina. Now they could be helpers 
and co-workers in bringing up their children 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
Had we not been restrained in our days of 
youthful folly by the pious lives and godly 
admonitions of our dear parents, you and I 
my dear brother, might have been undone 
forever. Oh, how thankful we should ever 
be to God our Heavenly Father for giving us 
religious parents. You know, when I was 
married, like most others in those days, I 
had to begin in the woods to make a farm. 
Mother would often walk that pathway, some 
half a mile between her house and ours. I 
remember one beautiful morning, in the 
spring of 1816, I was busy chopping in my 
clearing the logs and brush heaps thick. I 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 105- 

looked up and saw mother coming toward me. 
She had concluded to give me an exhortation 
before she went to the house. I suppose, I 
was apprised of her business, for she often 
labored with me in those days. When she 
was near enough to speak convenient!}^ she 
sat down on a log and said, come here my 
son and be seated by me, I want to talk some 
to you about your soul. There was so much 
heart-felt tenderness manifested in the voice, 
in the looks and in the language, that I felt 
a dart of conviction the moment she spoke 
these words. I dropped my ax, walked for- 
ward and took a seat as she requested. I 
wish I had her arguments and appeals, but 
they are gone from my memory, though I 
still retain in my mind vividly the deep and 
lasting influence of her faithful and oft-re- 
peated warnings and kind admonitions. I often 
think, dear brother, of what you told me 
about mother's great anxiety to see ]ne before 
she left this world. She had been encour- 
aged to look for a visit from me, but I failed 
to get ready to make the journey (a distance 
of two hundred miles), until I heard she was 
gone. All that comforts me now is the re- 
flection that I was so engaged in the work of 
the ministry that I found no time to make the 



106 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

long journey. I was doing a good work, still 
it would have been a great comfort to me 
had it been so that I could have seen her 
■once more. But there is a meeting now not 
far ahead, where I hope to be permitted to 
see all the Lord's people. There, my dear 
brother, we will meet, there we will see our 
dear parents, Uiere we will call tcr mind many 
things in which the Lord has been gracious, 
many mysterious providences then will be 
plain in the light of eternity. 

In conclusion, dear brother, let me encour- 
age you with m3^self to be faithful in the 
work of winning souls to God. Though we go 
weeping, bearing precious seed, we will come 
at the great harvest bringing in our sheaves. 



ELDEE ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 107 



CHAPTER XX. 

extract from speech delivered at an old 
settlers' MEE 

AUG. 10, 1871 



settlers' meeting at new castle, ind., 



In the spring of 1832, I moved to Henry 
county. But before I moved, I had to build 
a cabin. So I got some friends to help me 
cut and haul some round logs to a suitable 
site. I was told the common custom was to 
have whisky at house raisings. I told 
Robert Boyd, who had been in the count}* 
some time, I could not conform to the liquor 
custom. Now, had I better tell them as I 
went round asking my hands that I was a 
teetotaler, or ask my hands and say nothing 
about it? He advised the latter. I took his 
advice, but repented it afterward. The hands 
turned out well and went to work in good 
style, but pretty soon the flouts and jeers be- 
gan to fly thick and fast. One hallooed, 
''cold water and good wishes, boys." I called 
attention till I would make a short speech. 
When all was still I said, ''I am partially a 



108 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

stranger among you, I want to conform to 
your rules of neighborship as far as I can 
conscientiously." I then stated the advice I 
had accepted from friend Boyd. Now if 
they thought I had deceived them, just quit 
and go home, I would not say hard things of 
any of them, but would try to get ni}^ house 
raised as best I could. Some one hallooed 
out, "put up the man's house and say no more 
about the bottle." But a few could not bear 
to miss a dram, so they made up a purse and 
sent a boy for a jug of whisky. When it 
came there were but a few who would drink, 
seeing it was an insult to me and other tem- 
perate men present. Some of them got 
drunk and let a log fall, that came near kill- 
ing Peter Labortaux. From that very day 
the practice of using strong drink at gather- 
ings has been on the wane. Men would be 
ashamed to-day to bring out the bottle on 
such occasions. Much has been done since 
I was a boy to stop the ravages of intem- 
perance, yet much more must yet be done be- 
fore our fellow-men will be saved from falling 
into a drunkard's grave. 

In conclusion, permit me to say a few 
words to the old settlers of this meeting. In 
the gracious providence of God, we have been 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 109 

spared these many years on the earth. We 
have come down from a former generation. 
Few of our youthful associates are now living. 
We have been permitted to see great changes 
in our country. Once we had to drag through 
mud to do all our marketing and visiting. 
Cincinnati was our depot, and bad roads at 
that. We have seen the wild forests changed 
into beautiful fields of waving grain. The 
roads graveled, the iron horse snorting and 
hissing, ready to convey us and our produce 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores. We 
have seen news carried with the speed of 
lightning, but more than all that we have 
lived to see the prison doors open and the 
oppressed go free, and beside all this we 
have lived to see the Bible, that way-bill to 
heaven, sent to almost every nation on the 
earth, and published in their own native 
tongue. Once a Bible would cost more than 
a common laborer could pay. Now fifty 
cents will buy the whole volume of God's rev- 
elation to man. Ten cents for a new testa- 
ment. May God hasten the happy day w^hen 
our Savior will set judgment in the earth, and 
the isles shall wait for his law. 



110 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 



CHAPTER XXI. 

(Sermon delivered at the Christian Chapel, New Castle. April 13. 

187.?.) 

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober 
and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought 
unto you at the revehition of Jesus Christ. — Peter i: 
1-18 ' 

It seems that the brethren addressed by the 
Apostle in the text were in heaviness 
through many foki temptations. He warns 
them to be well armed for the conflict, lest 
their faith should be shaken and their hope 
should be lost. He exhorts them to gird uiUhe 
loins of their mind, using a tigure of speech. 
The loins being the foundation of bodily 
strength; there was an ancient custom of 
wearing a girdle to assist in giving power to 
perform great and protracted exertion of the 
body. Hence, it is used in Scripture as a 
means of giving strength in the great con- 
rticts the Christian is called to meet. Paid 
exhorts the Ephesian brethren to stand 
having their loins girt about with truth. 
Truth then is the girdle to be worn, by 



ELDEE ELIJAH MARTINDALE. m 

which we are to successfully conij^at all the 
powers of the world, the flesh and the devil. 
This truth is composed of all the facts, com- 
mands, promises and warnings of the Gospel 
of Christ. How many professing to be 
soldiers of the cross have been captured by 
the enemy for the want of this girdle. Fin- 
ally, let us hear the words of the blessed 
Master on this subject. ''Let your loins be 
girded about, your lamps burning and ye 
yourselves like unto men that wait for their 
Lord when he will return from the wedding, 
that when he cometh and knocketh they may 
open unto Him immediately." ''Blessed are 
those servants, whom the Lord when He 
cometh shall find watching." 

We now pass to the second injunction, be 
sober. These words stand in the form of a 
command, prohibiting excessive mirthfulness, 
jesting and joking which are not convenient, 
but rather giving of thanks. Gravity is the 
proper element for the Christian, and especi- 
ally when they meet in the Lord's house for 
worship. In order that the great truths of 
the Gospel may find their way to the hearts 
of unbelievers, it is required of the Lord's 
people to be sober-minded, and show a de- 
votional spirit when they assemble for wor- 



112 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

ship. Especially should the preacher in 
view of his great calling exercise sobriety 
and gravity. I have often been pained to see 
and hear otherwise good and profitable min- 
isters of the Gospel, when out of the pul- 
pit, destroy much of their power and influence 
by vain and giddy conversation. The plain 
word teaches that we shall be brought into 
judgment for our idle words; and the Savior 
said, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, 
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." 
Christ wept over the erring, he wept with the 
sorrowing, but no giddy, foolish words ever • 
escaped his lips. Oh, let us have more of 
the spirit of * the meek and lowly Jesus. 
Let all who name the name of Christ try to 
imitate his example in sobriety, in purity, in 
long suffering, endeavoring to keep the 
unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. 

We come now to the concluding member of 
the text. ' 'Hope to the end for the grace that 
is to be brought at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ." God has formed our minds so that 
we may enjoy this blessed solace, this happy- 
fying, soul-enlivening influence called hope. 
It is composed of confident expectation 
coupled with strong desire. It is compared 
to an anchor of a ship which holds it steady 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 113 

amid storms and tempests. Yes, hope is an 
anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast, 
and entering to that within the vale where 
Jesus has entered, and we look for the glori- 
ous appearing of the great God, and our 
Savior, Jesus Christ. 

I was taught in my youthful days that 
hope looked to the pardon of our past sins. 
This would be doubting the truth of God's 
word. Nothing will satisfy the truly awak- 
ened and deeply penitent sinner short of a 
knowledge of his sins forgiven. How can 
we rejoice evermore looking forward to the 
prize that lies at the end of the race unless 
we have the blessed knowledge or assurance 
that our sins are all forgiven? We are not 
to hope for the pardon of our past sins, but 
we are to hope for the grace that is to be 
brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ. 

Many trials and much opposition the 
Christian is called to meet. He often feels 
like David under the persecutions of King 
Saul: ''Surely one day I shall fall by the 
hand of my enemies; " but hope comes to his 
relief and he can sing, " Oh, my soul hope 
thou in God, for I shall yet praise thee." 
8 



114 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SERMONS OF 

Tribulation worketh patience, patience expe- 
rience, and experience hope. 

Hope maketh not ashamed because the 
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Oh 
let us hope to the end for the grace that is to 
be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 
Then the saints will be clothed with immor- 
tality . 

That great city, New Jerusalem, will come 
down from God out of Heaven prepared as a 
bride adorned for her husband. Blessed are 
they who are called unto the marriage sup- 
per of the Lamb. Jesus, with all his people, 
shall enter the palace royal to go no more out 
forever. Behold, the tabernacle of God is 
with men and he will dwell with them and 
they shall be his people. And there shall 
be no night there; and they need no candle, 
neither light of the sun, for the Lord God 
giveth them light and they shall reign for- 
ever and ever. Even so, come Lord Jesus. 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 115 



SONG 

I USED TO HEAR MY FATHER SING. 

(In which the Christian Journey is Compared to a Voyage on the 

Sea.) 

Through tribulation deep, 

The way to glory is ; 
This stormy course I keep 

O'er these tempestuous seas, 
By winds and waves I'm tossed and driven, 
Freighted with grace and bound for heaven. 

The Bible is my chart, 

By it the seas I know, 
I can not with it part, 

It rocks and sands doth show ; 
It is a chart and compass, too. 
Whose needle points forever true. 

When a dead calm ensues. 

And heaven no breezes give, 
The oar of prayer I use ; 

I labor, toil and strive 
Through storms and calms for many a day, 
I make but very little way. 

But when a heavenly breeze 

Springs up and fills my sails. 
My vessel goes with ease 

Before the pleasant gales. 
And runs as much an hour or more 
As in a month or two before. 



116 BRIEF ARTICLES AND SBRMONS OF 

As at the time of noon, 

My quadrant faith I take 
To view the Christ my sun, 

In hopes the clouds to break ; 
I'm happy when his face I see, 
I know then whereabouts I be. 

When storms and tempests come, 

My anchor hope I cast ; 
Faith is my cable strong, 

It holds my vessel fast. 
She safely then at anchor rides 
Midst stormy waves and swelling tides. 

My vessel would be lost 

In spite of all my care, 
But that the Holy One 

Vouchsafes himself to steer ; 
Both day and night his watchful care 
My vessel keeps from every snare. 

E'er I can reach heaven's coast, 

I must a gulf pass through ; 
My vessel though not lost 

Must fail to mortal view ; 
My ransomed spirit then set free. 
No more to pass this dangerous sea. 

Though rough, it is but short ; 

The pilot angels bring 
And lead me into port 

Redeeming love to sing; 
And, when I land on that blest shore, 
I shall be safe forevermore. 

Elder Elijah Martindale, departed this life 
July 21st, 1874. 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 117 



HISTORY OF THE MARTINDALE FAMILY 
IN AMERICA. 



BY ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 



My great grandfather, William Martindale, was born 
in Philadelphia, where his father settled when he came 
from England. He had five sons, James, John, Joseph, 
William and Thomas. Two of his daughters married 
Youngs, and one married Norman. William, the 
fourth son, was my grandfather, and was born March 
8, 1753, and died Jan. 24, 1854, aged 100 years, ten 
months and sixteen days. His sons were John, Moses 
and James. His daughters were Sarah, married to 
James Odle ; Polly, married Henry Garret ; Nancy, 
married Doan Bright ; Rachel, married Thomas Clark; 
Patsy, married William Jones ; Ruth, married Jesse 
Young first, he dying, she married William Boyd. My 
grandfather had three half brothers, Martin, Miles 
and David. 

My father, John Martindale, was born Oct. 12, 1772, 
and died July 22, 1852. He had four sons, Elijah, Will- 
iam, John and Robert. My sisters were, Rachel, mar- 
ried Jesse Platts ; Polly, married William Roe ; Peggy 
martied Eli Roe ; Sarah, married Boston Overrocker ; 
Lavina, married Silas Crocker. My brother John has for 
many years been a faithful and successful preacher in 
the church of Christ. His labors have been chiefly in 



118 MARTINDALE HISTORY BY 

Iowa, where he has resided for a number of years. My 
grandmothers were Martha Bishop, on father's side, and 
Margaret Pierson on mother's side. My grandfather, 
Robert Burns, was the son of Tarens Burns of Ireland. 
Several of my mother's uncle Burns' were preachers. 
My mother, Polly Burns (before she was married), 
had four brothers, Jeremiah, Thomas, James and 
Robert. Her sisters were, Tabitha, married Jesse 
Jones ; Rachel, married Jonathan Campbell ; Margaret, 
married John Pierson. Uncle Jeremiah Burns was an 
eminent preacher of the Baptist order. Uncle Robert 
was no less so among the Methodist. 

My father's brother, James Martindale, settled on a 
farm in Wayne county, near Washington, where he 
lived until his death. He had two sons, John and 
William. John lived on a farm near his father. He 
died many years ago. His children remain in the 
same locality, near Washington, Wayne county, 
Indiana. William, the other son, married Mahala 
Stiggleman, whom he deserted and went to the Mor- 
mans, and became a great apostle in expounding that 
faith. He left one daughter in Indiana when he went 
to the Mormans. 

My father's brother, Moses Martindale, moved to 
Eel River at an early day. His sons were Jesse, Will- 
iam, Charles, Moses, David and Thomas. One son, 
James, died unmarried. His daughters were Rachel, 
married to David Ward; Martha, married Benjamin 
Griffith ; Mary, died single, aged 20 ; Hannah, married 
Amos Murphy ; Margaret, married John Long; Sarah, 

married Brown; Elizabeth, married Tolman 

Smith. Children of Jesse Martindale: George B., 
Jessie, Chinweth, Benjamin, Ann, Hannah. Children 
of William Martindale : Hannah Abbott, Jahu, Charles, 
Martha McCarty, John, Angeline, William and Albert, 
deceased. Children of Charles Martindale : Martha 



ELDER ELIJAH MARTINDALE. 119 

Bunch, then Barrett, Mary Boggus, Amanda Stock- 
berger, Adaline Howell, then Zeihner, Charles, Sarah 
Armentrout, Catharine, Rosa Feister, William. Chil- 
dren of Moses Martindale : Rev. William J., Anna 
Horton (deceased), George A., and Warren B., an at- 
torney of Rochester, Ind. Children of David Martin- 
dale : Nancy J. Cole, Joseph, Elizabeth Trent, Samuel, 
Nora (deceased). Children of Thomas Martindale : 
Eliza J. Walker and Moses. Children of Benjamin 
and Martha Griffith : Hazel, William, Moses, Har- 
rison, Martha (all deceased), Samuel, and Sarah Guy 
(living). Children of Daniel and Rachel Ward: 
Moses, William, Levi, David, Sarah Hix, Ann Brown. 
Children of Amos and Hannah Murphy : John, Will- 
iam, George, Moses, Mary J. Bahr (living), Milton, 
Charles, Luther, Wesley (deceased). Children of John 
and Margaret Long: Ann AVooley, Charles, Nancy 
Norris, Amos, Margaret Norris, John W., and William 
(deceased). Children of Tolman and Elizabeth Smith : 
Martha Voorhies, Louis and James, William (died 
young). 

Gen. John H. Martindale, a prominent lawyer, of 
Rochester, N. Y., was a distant relative of Elijah Mar- 
tindale, the author of this history. He was appointed 
Brigadier-General in the army, and commanded a 
brigade in the Virginia Peninsular campaign in 1862. 
He was Military-Governor of the District of Columbia 
from 1862 to 1864. Then he joined the Eighteenth 
Corps of the Army of the James, which was united with 
the army of the Potomac. He fought the battles of 
Cold Harbor and Petersburg. He was elected Attorney- 
General of New York in 1866. He died abroad, in 
Dec. 13, 1881. Edward Martindale, a prominent lawyer 
in New York City, was a brother of Gen. J. H. Martin- 
dale. 



120 PIONEER HISTORY OF 



PIONEER HISTORY CONNECTED WITH 
THE BOYD FAMILY. 



CHAPTER I. 

How I Obtained My History — Elizabeth Martindale — 
She Sends Out a Missionary — Sufferings of the Boyd 
Family in the Revolutionary War— Linn Boyd the 
Statesman — Samuel Boyd, His Marriage and Emi- 
gration. 

The author of the history I am ahout to 
sketch was Elizabeth Martindale, wife of 
Elijah Martindale, the pioneer preacher, 
whose biography is given in this book. She 
was born in Madison county, Kentucky, 
1792. It was owing to her great physicial 
strength and wonderful industry that a large 
family of fourteen children were kept above 
want, and educated according to those early 
times, while her husband went forth as a 
herald of the cross. She was nearly one 
year his senior, yet owing to the constitution 
she inherited from her sturd}^ ancestors, she 
outlived him nearh^ ten years. During the 




ELIZABETH BOYD MARTINDALE. 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 121 

last seventeen years of her life she was a 
cripple from a rheumatic affection, and was 
compelled to walk on crutches. Although 
she was afflicted and bowed down with the 
weight of so many years, she could call up 
the incidents of her early life and relate them 
with a precision that seemed wonderful. 
She departed this life in New Castle, Ind., 
June 3d, 1884. She was the daughter of 
Samuel and Isabella Boyd, the former of 
Scotch-English, and the latter of Irish de- 
scent. 

James Boyd, the father of Samuel Boyd, 
was a Virginian by birth, and moved to South 
Carolina, where he took an active part in the 
struggle of the colonies to gain their indepen- 
dence. He was unyielding in the support of 
the war of the revolution, and he and his 
family suffered severely for their well tried 
patriotism. Twice their habitation was 
burned to the ground by the Tories, and they 
were left without shelter. Before the dread- 
ful conflict ceased, he was slain in battle. 
Three of his sons fought by his side, John, 
Samuel and Abraham. While Samuel was 
engaged in a skirmish the company w.as cap- 
tured, and he was left for dead, a ball having 
passed through his temple taking out his 



122 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

right eye. When he had lain sometime, an 
old colored woman came along, and when 
she saw his condition she concealed him 
under some bushes near by, then brought 
him some food and took care of him until he 
was able to get away. Abraham, the young- 
est son, who enlisted in the army, was then 
only sixteen years of age. He afterward be- 
came the father of Linn Boyd, the great Ken- 
tucky statesman, who was elected to the legis- 
ture of his State a few terms, then he was a 
member of Congress for eighteen years, and 
for four years was Speaker of the House. He 
was a farmer, and perhaps the secret of his 
popularity was that he kept himself on a 
level with the common people. He was a 
Democrat, and, like Andrew Jackson, he stood 
firmly against United States banks. He was 
in Congress when Henry Clay brought forth 
his memorable compromise bill, and through 
Col. Boyd's influence it was passed. He died 
Dec. 17, 1859. 

The mother of Samuel and Abraham Boyd, 
whose maiden name was Burns, was related 
by birth to the great bard of Scotland. 
Samuel Boyd was born in A^irginia, May 20, 
1763. In his early life, he with his father 
moved to South Carolina, where they enlisted 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 123 

in the army of the revolution. Having to 
carry through all his subsequent life such 
marks of the long and terrible struggle for 
independence would instill patriotism in the 
minds of his children, hence, they imbibed 
in early childhood a deep and abiding hatred 
to the name Tory, as the royalists Avas called. 
Isabella, wife of Samuel Boyd, was born in 
South Carolina, Feb. 13, 1764. Her father, 
John Higgins, was a native of Ireland. Her 
mother's name was Elizabeth Campbell. 
She also was of Irish descent. Samuel Boyd 
and Isabella Higgins were married in 1785. 
She was named in honor of the queen of 
Spain, and also, had the honor of being es- 
corted by Andrew Jackson in her youthful 
days. Her love settled upon the one-eyed 
soldier of the revolution, who was an honest 
farmer, and afterward became a faithful 
pioneer preacher. They first became mem- 
bers of the Presbyterian Church and after- 
ward joined the Newlights. It was favor- 
able for their vast progeny that they were 
inclined to go westward and seek more pro- 
ductive soil. Soon after their marriage, 
they moved to Tennessee and settled in a 
cabin home. While living here, a great 
shadow fell across their pathway. 



124 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

One of Isabella's cousins in Carolina mar- 
ried a somewhat wealthy man and they ar- 
ranged to visit their cousin in her new home 
in Tennessee. The road they were to travel 
was hilly, or rather mountainous, and unfre- 
quented. At that time the only mode of trav- 
eling was on horseback. They made their 
visit, but soon after they set out on their re- 
turn voyage, they were murdered and their 
bodies left lying in the forest. Their saddles 
were left lying beside them, but they had been 
robbed and their horses were taken. This 
left a sad memory on the minds of the youth- 
ful pioneers. They moved from Tennessee 
and settled in Madison county, Kentucky. 

Samuel Boyd was a large and somewhat 
corpulent man with ruddy face and dark hair 
before it was silvered with age. The loss of 
his eye was a great deformity to his person as 
he never tried to conceal the blemish by 
shades or any kind of glasses. I can't say 
they were not in use for I think it was just 
about this time, or earlier, that Goldsmith rep- 
resents the hopeful son of the vicar of Wakefield 
as making sale of the family nag and buying 
a whole gross of green spectacles. Anyway 
my grandfather chose to wear a patch of black 
silk over the empty socket and the last time 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 125 

I sat on his knee and was bearded by his 
kisses I thought he was awful sweet, but 
still I didn't like the looks of that eye. 

Oh, I wish we had a cycloramic view of 
those wounded, starving, bleeding-feeted 
soldiers marching over the frozen ground 
bowed down w4th disaster and defeat, yet 
willing to die in the last ditch to purchase a 
land of freedom. 

In view of all this, will we surrender our 
rights as citizens of this great commonwealth 
and allow our country so dearly bought to be 
ruled by monopolists and millionaires? Will 
we allow corruption, fraud, sham and boodle 
to take the place of an honest election? What 
worse chains could England have forged for 
us? 



126 PIONEER HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER II. 

HISTORY OF SAMUEL BOYD AND FAMILY. 

The author of my history says that when 
she was seven years old her parents moved 
from Madison county, Kentucky, to a place 
on the Cumberland river called ' ' Horseshoe 
Bend." Here they were surrounded by hills 
and ravines and what was worse, the country 
school-house was on the other side of the 
river and several families living in the 
Bend must ply a canoe to gain access to the 
school. After remaining there awhile they 
moved to Adair count}^, which was then a 
wilderness part of Kentucky; though many 
fields had been prepared for cultivation and 
the owners finding their titles were not good 
had abandoned them and they were all grown 
up in underbrush. Some orchards, too, had 
been planted and produced seedling fruit. 
About this time the great Kentucky revival 
reached this part of the state, and Samuel 
Boj^d's house was one great center for the 
meetings. 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 127 

B. W. Stone, Wm. Kincade, the Dooly's 
and Purviance all came frequently to hold 
meetings. Samuel Boyd commenced the 
work of exhortation and soon became an 
earnest minister of the Gospel, and what is 
most worth recording, he made his life corre- 
spond to his profession, striving to do unto 
others as he would have them do unto him. 

Many incidents transpired here worthy of 
record. One was the death of a faithful old 
negro slave who had fallen to Samuel Boyd 
from his ancestors. He tenderly cared for 
her in her old age, and when the icy hand of 
death was laid upon her, they sadly mourned 
as though she had been one of the dearest in- 
mates of the home. During her life no 
greater grief could come to her than to hear a 
word said about setting her free. She was 
not really a slave; she was simply a part of 
the family circle. Indeed, slavery had no 
horrid features in Kentucky at that time. 
The people were partly of the old New En- 
gland stock who repelled the institution; yet 
the leprous germ was there; the buds were 
being nurtured that would produce the great 
Upas tree with all its bitter fruits. 

In the year 1811, Samuel Boyd learned 
that valuable land had come into market in 



128 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

the territory of Indiana. Although there 
were no speculative agents to give a glowing 
description of the country, yet it became a 
well known fact that Indiana possessed broad 
acres of well timbered land, the most fertile 
to be found. Samuel Boyd by this time, like 
Abraham of old, was blest with flocks and 
herds, and was able to live comfortably, yet 
his acres were not sufficient for his large 
family. Having disposed of land and stock 
partly, with a family of nine children, several 
of them making the journey in equestrian 
style, they took up the march for Indiana. 
After the monotony of nearly one week's 
travel, being hindered by the driving of some 
stock, and making a short stay in Cincinnati, 
they arrived near where the town of Eaton 
now stands. Two families, the Taylors and 
Irwins, had emigrated from Kentucky a short 
time before, and were located at this point. 
Mr. Boyd made selection of land near where 
Jacksonburg now stands, and proceeded to 
build a cabin, but before it was finished the 
Indians had become so exasperated that they 
began making attacks on the defenseless 
settlers along the frontier. 

The origin of the Indian troubles dated 
back more than a year, when Gov. Harrison 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 129 

had made a treaty with several tribes by which 
they had ceded to him a large body of land 
along the Wabash river. Tecumseh, chief 
of the Shawnee tribe, took advantage of the 
case, showing how they had forfeited their 
rich hunting grounds, and thus excited them 
to a feeling of revenge. He tried to form an 
alliance of all the western tribes against the 
whites. Governor Harrison, after trying in 
vain to treat w4th Tecumseh, met him in 
hostile array and a decisive battle was fought 
at Tippecanoe, Oct. 7, 1811. The Indians 
were repulsed and defeated, but Tecumseh 
escaped and joined the British forces in the 
war of 1812, and was promoted to brigadier- 
general, leading the Indian troops. 

Dangers to the frontier settlers were great- 
ly increased by the inauguration of a second 
war with Great Britian. The Indians hav- 
ing a grievance, on account of being dispos- 
sessed of their lands, could easily be enlisted 
to commit depredations against white settlers. 
So there was no security of safety to the 
emigrants who attempted to make a home in 
the dense forest that comprised the vast ter- 
ritory of the Wabash valley. 

The Boyd family had been living a kind 
of a camp life until their cabin would be 
9 



130 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

ready to move into, and now the alarm was 
given that the Indians had become furious 
and were constantly on the war-path, ready 
for depredations. They were far out on the 
frontier, only two or three settlers near them. 
Those few met together and agreed to build a 
fort by which their families might be pro- 
tected until the Indians should become peace- 
able. 

They cut down small trees and split them 
in two parts and planted them in the ground 
until they inclosed half an acre. Within 
this inclosure some rude shanties were built, 
the fort wall forming one side of the shanty 
though some had tents. The worst feature 
was there were no guards sufficient to defend 
the fort against an attack of the Indians, as 
they generally went in gangs. 

The inmates of the fort were sometimes 
aroused from their slumbers, perhaps by cat- 
tle beating against the wall, and they felt 
sure the Indians had come. The only hope 
was in making a pretense of numbers, so 
one assumed command as general, and or- 
dered forty on one side and forty on another, 
when perhaps there was not more than a 
half dozen men in the fort. 

The families feeling that there was no 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 131 

safety there, left the fort one by one and 
went back near where Richmond now stands, 
where there were more white settlers and 
they would not be so liable to an attack of 
the Indians. The Boyd family stayed at the 
fort the longest, but they finally gave it up 
and went back to the settlement. Indeed 
they moved back and forth a number of 
times before they could feel that they were 
safe so far out on the frontier. 

Elizabeth remembered one day, when the 
men were all gone from the fort, she was sit- 
ting spinning, and as she happened to look at 
an aperture in the outer wall, she saw the 
glaring eyes of an Indian who looked to be 
furiously bent on knowing just what was in 
the fort. Her heart beat to a palpitation. 
She spun awhile longer, then remembering 
the guns were lying there loaded, she said to 
another young woman who was in the fort, 
''Let us take a gun apiece and go out." 
They were in such suspense they wanted to 
know whether the Indians were preparing to 
massacre the few helpless inmates, or whether 
they were gone. They saw no trace of the 
Indians, but horses were stolen in the settle- 
ment near Richmond that night. 

The face of the red man even in time of 



132 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

peace would send a thrill of terror to the 
heart of those unaccustomed to the sight; 
but when their savage nature was aroused, 
and every other feeling had given way to re- 
venge; when they were daily in search of 
some poor white emigrant that might fall a 
victim to their scalping knife, then the sight 
was terrible indeed. 

One prominent trait in the character of the 
Boyd family was industry. Among. all the 
fearful dangers to which they were exposed, 
they proceeded to cut away the forest and 
prepare for planting a field. The work of 
the household, including spinning and weav- 
ing, was carried on with a bravery that now 
seems incredible. There was no cabin or 
;shelter in the fort large enough to contain the 
loom, so it was taken to the new cabin that 
had been abandoned to seek shelter in the 
fort. Elizabeth and a younger sister, Polly, 
went daily through the woods about a mile 
away to weave. She made a very romantic 
journey in trying to prepare the web for the 
loom. She had no warping mills or bars, so 
she and another young woman living in the 
family went to the nearest neighbor, about 
seven miles away, to warp; and when they 
arrived the bars were in use and they had to 



THE BOYD FAMILY. I33 

wait. When they finished their web and 
were ready to start home it was some time in 
the night. If they were to stay all night 
their parents would think the Indians had 
captured them, so they mounted their fast 
horses and with a full determination to out- 
run the Indians if any came in their way^ 
they set out for home. Elizabeth could look 
back through the subsequent years of her 
life and see that she was guarded by a Provi- 
dential care through all these dangers to which 
she was daily exposed. 

A few months after the circumstances I 
have just related, there was a murder com- 
mitted that sent grief and terror to the hearts 
of all the settlers on the frontier. John 
Shortridge, a very respectable and industrious 
young man, residing in Drury's fort, a few 
miles south of where the Boyd family was 
stationed, was shot while out on horseback 
looking after some cattle. It was said that 
he wore an overcoat resembling one worn by 
a certain George Ish against whom the In- 
dians held a deadly spite and that they took 
aim at him by mistake, but the facts in the 
case were not known. John Shortridge was 
a brother of Elisha Shortridge who became a 
minister and resided many years in Dudly 



134 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

township, Henry county. After the fear and 
terror occasioned by the murder of Shortridge 
had subsided there was an interval of peace 
and several families had settled on lands and 
begun to think they were safe in their cabin 
homes; but the Indians were still lurking 
about and if their savage nature was once 
aroused against an individual they never 
failed to seek revenge. 

There was one Charles Morgan, living on 
the Walnut Level frontier, ^vho was always 
on bad terms with the Indians. He had been 
so long accustomed to seeing them that he 
didn't seem to realize how much he was at 
their mercy, and that in provoking them he 
jeopardized not only his own life, but also 
the lives of others. After times were thought 
to be better, he and his two half brothers, the 
Beesley boys, were tending their sugar camp 
at night and were surprised by a gang of 
Indians, who could see by the firelight how to 
take a deadly aim. The Beesley boys w^ere 
standing near the kettles w^hen they fell, and 
one falling into the fire was partly consumed. 
Morgan was lying down asleep, so they dis- 
patched him with their tomahawks. 

Jonathan Shaw, long a resident of Wayne 
county, was then on the w^ild frontier, and 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 135 

was tending a sugar camp close by. He was 
sitting by his kettles making a split-broom 
when he heard the firing of the guns, and 
looking at the Morgan camp he saw the 
Indians doing their bloody work. He con- 
cealed himself a moment behind a tree, then 
remembering his helpless family in the cabin, 
he started with lightning speed to see if they 
were safe. He collected another family living 
near and his own in one cabin, barred the 
doors and with loaded guns kept watch until 
morning light. But the Indians fled after 
committing the murder at the Morgan camp. 
This terrible tragedy happened about eighty 
rods north of Walnut Station. The beam 
and trammels where the kettles hung re- 
mained for a number of years, no one having 
occasion to remove them. They seemed to 
be a sad memorial of by-gone days. 



136 PIONEER HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER III. 

Peace Established— The Indians Driven West — No 
Missionaries— Pioneer Preachers Go Among Them — 
A Great Tragedy in an Indian Hut— The Preach- 
ers Blown up by Gunpowder — Death of Samuel 
Boyd. 

The second war with Great Britain was now 
brought to a close; the clash of arms ceased 
to resound; the Indians after awhile forgot 
their grievances and peace like a gentle dove 
seemed to brood over our land spreading its 
halcyon wings from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
cific shores. The tide of emigration rapidly 
increased and soon the white man was sole 
possessor of the forest homes that had so long 
been made to resound to the echoing call of 
the Indian hunter. Offerings of gratitude 
went up from many hearts for the blessings 
of peace, but while the Indians were reced- 
ing to the homes appointed for them farther 
west, it seemed apparent to every Christian 
mind that we had neglected to teach them or 
help them in any way to become a civilized 
or enlightened race. 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 137 

Up to this time there never had a mission- 
ary set foot on the soil of Indiana, except 
some Jesuit priests at a very early day, and they 
reported most of the tribes very teachable. 
The Miamis were the most warlike at that- 
time and it would have been hard to make 
any impression on their minds. After the 
western tribes had become peaceable and were 
located in villages to themselves and had be- 
come acquainted with our language, many of 
the early pioneer preachers of Indiana went 
and labored among them and were successful 
in implanting Bible truths in their minds 
and hearts. 

One of the most faithful and active in this 
work was Samuel Boyd. He had a number 
of preaching places among the Indians. One 
point where he went repeatedly was an In- 
dian village called Strawtown and was near 
about where the town of Alexandria now 
stands. The Indians greeted him with warm 
hearts and listened while he tried to expound 
to them the way of life. One of his visits to 
this point was attended by a scene somewhat 
tragical in its results and left a sad remi- 
niscence on the minds of all who escaped. 
He and another preacher named Logan had 
ridden many miles to reach this point and 



138 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

were resting in one of the Indian huts until 
dinner was prepared for them. The Indian 
children were playing near where a keg of 
powder was sitting. One of them unnoticed 
touched a stick to the fire and then to the 
powder. A terrific explosion followed; the 
hut was partly demolished and the children 
were all killed. The ministers escaped heing 
killed, no one hardly knew how. Boyd had 
lain down on a cot and it whirled -upside 
down and was set on fire. He was too much 
stunned to extricate himself, and before any 
one could help him he was badly burned, es- 
pecially his feet. 

To many it might seem a vain delusion to 
undertake the work of teaching those rude 
savages, who seem happier in roaming the 
wild forests than they would to dwell in mar- 
ble halls or kingly palaces, yet their natures 
could have been changed by cultivation, and 
if there had been more sacrifice made at that 
early day to christianize them, and especially 
to teach them the arts of civilization, it would 
have saved our country from the sv/arms of 
Indians, who are living in idleness to-day 
and making constant draughts on the public 
treasury. 

Samuel Bovd had a heart that went out in 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 139 

love for all mankind. He was willing to go 
wherever duty called him. No work seemed 
too humble for his hands to do. Seemingly 
in the midst of his useful labors he was called 
away from the shores of time. Being ex- 
posed to a shower of rain, he took a severe 
cold, which settled in asthma, and he died 
sitting in his chair Nov. 27, 1835, at the age 
of seventy-two years. He was not permitted 
to see any great results of his labors, yet no 
doubt it was as bread cast upon the waters, 
which shall be gathered up many days hence. 

His work was of a humble nature, trying 
to lift up fallen humanity and bring the 
wandering ones to the great Shepherd's fold, 
and to such the prophet has said, ''They that 
turn many to righteousness shall shine as the 
stars forever and ever." 

When Samuel Boyd moved to Indiana, he 
he had five sons. Robert, the youngest, was 
thirteen years old. James, John, William 
and Samuel were stalwart young men, with 
the exception of a rheumatic affection which 
seemed to be a family disease. He also had 
four daughters. All of them settled on farms 
in Wayne and Henry counties, and all ex- 
cept Isabel, the youngest daughter, lived and 
died in those counties, and most of them 



140 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

were buried at the old Jacksonburg cemetery. 
When Mrs. Edna Swiggett, of Indianapolis, 
daughter of John and Caroline Smith, and 
granddaughter of Abiram Boyd, visits that 
old burying ground, she can stand by the 
headstones of three generations of grand- 
fathers. 

It was the custom of Samuel Boyd, the old 
patriarch, for some years before his death, to 
make an annual feast, usually in the month 
of August, and call together all his children 
and grandchildren. The number at the last 
gathering was about eighty, but at this time 
his posterity would be almost like the sand 
on the sea shore, innumberable. The Boyd 
family have held some reunions more recent- 
ly, but they are too much scattered ever to 
make Wayne county a place of rendezvous 
again. They would have to come from the 
east and from the west, from the north and 
from the south; then it would merely be a 
gathering of strange faces. 



s-^ f> ./i'3. 



THE MAETINDALE FAMILY. 141 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE MARTINDALE FAMILY. 

Elizabeth Boyd became the wife of Elijah 
Martindale, October 12, 1815. They resided 
on a little farm they had purchased on 
the Walnut Level, until the spring of 1832, 
at which, time they moved to Henry county, 
bringing with them eleven children. They 
settled on Flatrock, having purchased the 
land now owned by J. C. Peed. When they 
landed they moved into a little hut on the 
bank of the creek until the new double cabin 
would be finished. There was a field of six 
acres almost ready for the plow which was 
planted that year and produced a good crop 
of corn and other vegetables. That summer 
will long be remembered on account of chol- 
era, which swept over the land taking away so 
many good citizens of Henry county. Other 
diseases seemed to follow, especially fevers 
were prevalent later in the season. 

Among the most prominent of our neigh- 
bors at that early day was Josiah Clawson, 



142 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

the father of Mrs. Fidelia Wayman and 
Thomas N. Clawson, of New Castle, and 
James Clawson of Springport. He pur- 
chased the home in the woods west of the 
Martindale place, where Jesse Nichelson now 
lives. We verily thought Aunt Phebe Claw- 
son was indispensable when sickness visited 
us. Indeed those early pioneers knew how 
to lend each other a helping hand, not only 
when the logs were to be rolled, or the cabin 
raised, but in other times of need, they re- 
sponded with substantial aid. 

True friendship seemed to exist in those 
early times, partly from the fact that they 
were dependent upon each other, but more 
especially on account that they were all shar- 
ing the privations and hardships incident to 
a new country. 

A number of families moved into the 
neighborhood and took homes in the woods 
about this time, so it became an imperative 
duty to build a school-house. Enos Bond, 
who had moved from Wayne county, and 
settled on land centerable, donated a lot. 
The neighbors met and prepared the logs 
and constructed a cabin with a huge 
fire-place. Oh, that old log school-house! 
there was a grandeur about it left in my 



THE MARTINDALE FAMILY. 143 

memory I never can describe. All the ten- 
der buds of hope belonging to that wild re- 
gion met there. They knew nothing of the 
world beyond this center. To gain the head 
of the spelling-class was to them the cardinal 
point of human happiness. Fragrant in my 
memory to-day are those scenes long van- 
ished. Time has rolled on like a ceaseless 
river, and borne away with its mighty cur- 
rent most of that band who met there so full 
of joy and hope. 

The first teacher that was hired, when the 
house was completed, was Elder Elijah Mar- 
tindale, the only applicant. He was paid the 
sum of $32 for the entire term. It was the 
only school he ever taught, and I believe he 
accepted that winter in a case of emergency, 
as teachers w^ere hard to get at that time. 

This same log school-house was used for 
the meetings of the Christian church which 
was organized at a very early day. The fam- 
ilies of Corwine, Clift and Thornton moved to 
this neighborhood from Kentucky, having 
seceded from the Baptists and joined the 
Christian or Disciples' church. Martindale 
and Corwine exercised their talent in the 
ministry, the former being wonderfully gifted 
in exhortation, and his Christian zeal was 



144 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

made manifest in all his deliverances, both to 
try to enlighten the understanding and to ex- 
hort men to flee from the wrath to come. 

During the fall of 1833 Elijah Martindale 
was attacked with a very severe form of bil- 
ious fever. He grew worse until all hopes of 
his recovery were given up . While he was lying 
unconscious, seeming evidently approaching 
the hour of dissolution, two devoted Christian 
ministers named Wilson were sent for. When 
they came they annointed him with oil in the 
name of the Lord and offered fervent prayer 
at his bedside, after which they united their 
melodious voices in singing a rapturous strain 
describing the music of the angels when they 
announced to the shepherds the birth of 
Christ. While they were singing he became 
conscious. The crisis in the disease dated 
from that hour, and he began to recover and 
in time was restored to health. I am not 
calling loudly upon a skeptical world to be- 
lieve in miracles. All I can say is that this 
happened just as I have related it. It seemed 
to be an example of what the Apostle James 
meant when he said the prayer of faith shall 
save the sick and the Lord shall raise him 
up; yet I don't know that the Apostle intend- 
ed any miracle. 



THE MARTINDALE FAMILY. 145 

It would seem to persons who share the 
luxuries of more modern times that such a 
family, located almost in the woods, was des- 
tined to suffer want. Yet such was not the 
case. There never was a family of bees put 
into a hive that was more active and indus- 
trious than the older children of the Martin- 
dale family. Nearly all the work of clearing 
the woods and cultivating the fields devolved 
upon three boys not near grown. J. N. 
Martindale, now living in Hancock county, 
took the lead in that work. He has ever 
since followed the avocation of farming, and 
has amassed considerable wealth, chiefly by 
the sweat of his brow. S. P. Martindale 
lives in Tipton, where he has followed mer- 
cantile business for some years past. B. F. 
Martindale, the youngest of the three, had 
been farming lands in Missouri for some 
time before his death, which occurred October 
22, 1876. He was gifted with powers by 
which he could have became efficient in the 
Christian ministry, a calling to which he de- 
voted himself for a time, but abandoned it 
for the reason it didn't meet the demands 
of his helpless family. To the eleven 
children born in Wayne county, three 
more were added, Robert A., now living in 
10 



146 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

Hartford City; Lizzie, who married Luther 
Hennigh and died in the year 1882, and 
James B., the youngest, who now lives in 
Chicago, and is publishing a law directory. 
Of the group of five younger boys, Elijah 

B. was the oldest, and became superintendent 
of the farm work' after the first trio that I 
have mentioned were married and gone. 
He had an extraordinary business talent 
which seemed to develop itself very early in 
life. He is now a resident of Indianapolis, 
where he has dealt largely in real estate, be- 
ing at one time proprietor of the Indianapolis 
Journal, and owning some of the finest resi- 
dences in the city. He is now National 
Commissioner of the World's Fair. Simeon 

C, the next in years, is an attorney in An- 
derson, where he stands uppermost in the 
scale of moral honesty. William S. , the next, 
was the baby when the family moved to Henry 
county. He married Ruth Shawhan, who 
died of consumption in the year 1865, leav- 
ing one daughter, Emma, who married 
Howard Higdon, with whom he now makes 
his home. 

There was one great oversight or neglect 
in the work of preparing that large family of 
eight boys to go forth into the world and be 



THE MARTINDALE FAMILY. 147 

able to assume all the duties and responsibili- 
ties of married life. Several of them should 
have learned good trades. E. B. Martindale 
saw the importance of that before he left the 
farm, and went and apprenticed himself to 
John Taylor, now his father-in-law, and be- 
came a good saddle and harness maker. In 
that he mistook his calling, as he had a 
quality of brain that made him able to com- 
pete with the world a thousand times better 
in some avocation that called his mental powers 
into action. 

'^Man know thyself" is an injunction that 
has become proverbial, and applies with 
equal force to parents in regard to their 
children, that is, know what their talent is 
and which way it should be directed. It is 
far better to be a good carpenter or a good 
blacksmith than to be a failure in some lofty 
profession. 

Nearly all the clothing worn in the Mar- 
tindale family at that early day was manu- 
factured at home. Usually in the spring, 
the flax stalks in the mow contained in em- 
bryo the summer clothing to be worn. It 
had been spread out and watered so as to sep- 
arate the lint from the stalk. Then muscu- 
lar power was applied to a flax-break, a ma- 



148 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

chine resting upon legs with an upper part 
hinged on and made so as to crush the flax 
and break the stalks between the two pieces. 
Next came the beating out the shives, a pro- 
cess with which I was quite familiar at that 
time but hard now to describe. It was done 
by putting a handful of flax across the top of 
a board one end of which was sharpened 
and driven into the ground, then a smooth 
paddle was used to beat out the shives. 
Then the flax w^as hackled, or drawn through 
an instrument with iron teeth, until it was 
nice and smooth, then wound on the distaff 
and spun. It was often made into fine beau- 
tiful linen. This manner of manufacturing 
home spun clothing was not peculiar to any 
section of our country. It was a process com- 
mon to all the States. 

It seems strange to-day how such large 
families as most of them w^ere'in those days 
could be kept clothed on such little outlay, 
yet the secret was plenty of industry ap- 
plied to the raw material. The wool on the 
sheep's back was an unfailing source for 
winter clothing. The contents of the pocket 
book only had to meet the carding bill and 
the dyes for coloring. 

In the Martindale family sometimes three 



THE MARTINDALE FAMILY. 149 

wheels and often two looms were kept going 
a good part of the year. Linens were ex- 
changed for Sunday clothing. 

In this chapter I have mentioned every one 
of that band of fourteen children except five 
girls. Matilda, the first born, married Al- 
fred Rulon, and they have both passed away 
leaving three daughters, all of whom are now 
in the west. Margaret, married Eli Millikan, 
who died Aug. 23, 1885, and she now lives 
with her sons at Indianapolis. Martha, mar- 
'ried Julius Benlow, and they now reside in 
New Castle. She has two sons in Chicago 
and two in Kalamazoo. Isabel, the writer, 
married Philip Stanford, who died in 1853, 
about five years after their marriage, and she 
has ever since remained a widow. Mary, 
married Charles Roe, who died in the year 
1876, and she and her daughter Alice now 
live in Englewood, 111. One of her daughters 
married J. H. Wright, a Christian minister, 
and Elza Roe, her son, lives on the farm. 

Elder Elijah Martindale had taken some 
lessons in shoe-making in his early life, and 
it was a means of saving him from bank- 
ruptcy no doubt. He generally purchased 
his leather from John Powell, who often made 
a reduction on the bill at the time of settle- 



150 PIONEER HISTORY OF 

merit. He was sometimes called away from 
the bench to preach a funeral or attend to 
other duties, disappointing the little urchin 
that was sitting by waiting for the new shoes 
to be completed. 

In the year 1839, a kiln of brick was manu- 
factured preparatory to building a new house 
next season. Nearly all the work was com- 
pleted by members of the family. A molder 
was hired and one boy to help E. B., then 
eleven years old, in bearing off the brick. 

S. C. Martindale, the next younger than E. 
B., was afflicted with a white swelling in his 
childhood, and was for many years a great 
sufferer. Many pieces of bones exhuded from 
his leg, some of them an inch in length. He 
lay for many weeks so low and wornout with 
suffering that no one could hope for his re- 
covery. The Martindale family suffered 
more or less from all the diseases incident to 
a new country, yet one thing seems remark- 
able to record; there was a space of forty years 
during which the angel of death never tipped 
his icy wing or perched near to select a victim 
from that large family circle of parents and 
fourteen children. Miles, their first born 
son, died in 1824, aged seven. The next was 
Matilda E. Rulon, who died in the year 1864. 



THE MAKTINDALE FAMILY. 151 

During this long period all the children 
were married except Lizzie, who afterwards 
became the wife of Luther Hennigh. Two of 
those adopted by marriage were called away 
by the hand of death during this time. The 
first was Amelia, formerly Mansfield, the 
first wife of E. B. Martindale, a woman of 
more than ordinary intellect. The other was 
Philip Stanford, husband to the writer, a 
very amiable citizen, noted for his honesty 
and industry. Also the aged grandmother, 
widow of Samuel Boyd, was during this forty 
years called away from the Martindale family 
circle where she had found a welcome home 
during most of the seventeen years she sur- 
vived her husband . She died October 31 , 1852 . 
Since then the homes of nearly all the chil- 
dren have been darkened by the shadow of 
death. Elder Elijah Martindale and Eliza- 
beth, his wife, and two more of that band of 
fourteen have been called away. The golden 
sunlight has faded forever from the home of 
J. B. Martindale in the death of his wife, 
Anna Liz, and three sweet little girls, Julia, 
Bettie and Lottie. Ruth, wife of W. S. 
Martindale, was taken away and Mary, the 
youngest daughter living, has been bereaved 
of her affectionate husband, Charles Roe. 



152 THE MARTINDALE FAMILY. 

Alfred Rulon, who was left to fight the battles 
of life alone, has crossed the dark river. Eli 
Millikan has since passed over and many of 
the grandchildren have faded away in the 
dew of youth, while life's glad morning was 
full of hope. The last one of that large family 
circle that fell by the keen sickle was Lizzie 
Hennigh, the youngest daughter, and none 
can tell whom the reaper will call for next. 

" Leaves have their time to fall 

And flowers to wither at the North wind's breath, 
And stars to set ; but all, 
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Oh death." 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 153 



CHAPTER V. 

THE BOYD FAMILY. 

James, the oldest son of Samuel Boyd, was 
born in Tennessee, Dec. 5, 1786. He and 
his brother John settled on adjoining farms 
in Wayne county, Ind., about two miles 
southwest of Washington. He was first mar- 
ried to Margaret Mitchel. She was the 
mother of the four oldest of his children. 
He afterward married Hester Ruby. He left 
his farm in his old age, and moved to Rich- 
mond, where he departed this life Sept. 29, 
1863. He had a large family of children. 
Caroline, his oldest daughter, married James 
O'Neal, he dying she married a Mr. Willetts, 
by whom she had one son with whom she 
now lives near Winchester. She had a num- 
ber of O'Neal children, but I think they are 
all dead. 

Mitchel Boyd, the oldest son lived on a 
farm in Wayne county until his death, which 
transpired recently. Philander, the second 
son lives in Greenfield. He is a wealthv 



154 THE BOYD FAMILY. 

banker. Abiram, the third son, was also a 
banker of Cambridge City, and possessed a 
goodly fortune. He died Nov. 13, 1885. 

Joseph Perry, the oldest son by the second 
marriage, was a physician, and moved to Mis- 
souri shortly after his marriage. He lived 
there until his death. His family still reside 
in that state. William Elza, the next in 
order, is a farmer and lives near Greenfield, 
Ind. Isabel Ann, married Lewis Lesli, a 
merchant. They are both dead. Their 
family lives in Illinois. Amanda Eveline, 
married a Mr. Willetts, a farmer, and they 
live in Illinois. James Ruby lives some- 
where in the west. Alfred Dudley, the 
youngest son, lives on a farm near Jackson- 
burg. John, the second son of Samuel Boyd, 
the old soldier of the revolution, was born in 
Madison county, Ky., May 12, 1789. He 
married Susan Scott. He was a farmer by 
trade, although he was not able to pursue 
that avocation on account of a rheumatic af- 
fection that rendered him a cripple from his 
youth. He was large and corpulent, and yet 
dependent upon the use of two crutches for 
his power of locomotion. He left his farm 
in his old age and moved to Dublin, Ind., 
where he died Dec. 11, 1872. He had seven 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 155 

sons and five daughters . His oldest son was the 
late Dr. Samuel Boyd, of Dublin, Ind. Nel- 
son, his second son lives in Iowa. William, 
the third son was major in the army, and fell 
in the battle of Rocky Face in 1864. James, 
his fourth son is a farmer, living in Wayne 
county, Ind. John, the fifth son, lived on a 
farm in Wayne county, where he died of a 
disease contracted in the army. Joseph Lewis, 
the sixth son, died at New Albany, having con- 
tracted a fever at the battle of Pittsburg 
Landing. Oliver, the youngest son lives in 
Iowa. 

Sarah Ann the oldest daughter married 
Joel Hypes, who died in the army. He was 
a member of the Eighth Indiana Regiment. 
She married again to a Mr. Goolman. Her 
home was at Kansas City, where she died. 
Eliza Jane, the second daughter, married 
John Commons. They now live in Chicago. 
Mary and Martha, the next two, were twins. 
Mary married John H. Witt, and she lives 
in Columbus, Ohio. Martha married Leburn 
Commons, and they now reside in Anderson^ 
Indiana. Susan, the youngest daughter, 
married Charles Wilson, a dentist, and they 
live in Richmond, Indiana. 

William, the third son of Samuel Boyd,, 



156 THE BOYD FAMILY. 

the old revolutionary soldier, was born in 
Madison count}^, Kentucky, March 24, 1781. 
He was twice married. First to Mary Owen; 
she dying, he married Ruth Young, for- 
merly, Martindale. He owned a large and 
beautiful farm on the Walnut Level, where 
he died September 22, 1846. He left three 
sons and two daughters. 

Samuel, his oldest son, lived in Hagers- 
town, and was killed by a saw-log rolling 
over his body. His death occurred Decem- 
ber 23, 1889. John, the second son, lived on a 
farm near New Lisbon. He died about two 
years ago . William M . , the third son , lives in 
Indianapolis, where he has been engaged in 
mercantile business. 

The two daughters, Mary Ann and Nancy, 
live in Dublin, where their mother, Ruth 
Boyd, settled when she left the farm. They 
tenderly cared ^or her in her declining years. 
Her life only lacked six years of completing 
a century. 

She had one daughter by her first hus- 
band. Patsy Young, who married Branson 
Harris. The}^ are the parents of A. C. Har- 
ris, an attorney of Indianapolis, and Alonzo, 
a farmer near Washington, Wayne county. 

Samuel K., the fourth son of Samuel Boyd, 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 157 

the revolutionary soldier, was born in Ken- 
tucky, June 29, 1794. He was married first to 
Martha Lewis and settled near Williamsburg. 
He had by this wife one son, James, who 
died in childhood, and five daughters, Pris- 
cilla, who married James Clemens and set- 
tled in Randolph county, and Narcissa, who 
married John Chamness, of Williamsburg, 
and is deceased; Sarah Ann, who married 
Joseph Lomax, a lawyer of Kalamazoo, Mich.; 
Evelina, who married William A. Peelle, now 
living in Richmond; Martha, wife of Winston 
W. Harris, who lives in Centre ville. After 
the death of his first wife, Samuel K. Boyd 
married Bethany Ladd, by whom he had nine 
children, four sons and five daughters. 
William, the oldest son, lives in Rich- 
mond. Isabel, the oldest daughter, married 
Thomas Fagan. Catharine, the second 
daughter, married William Goodrich. Mary 
married John Keever; she died leaving two 
children. Bethany, the youngest daughter, 
took care of her father until his death, which 
transpired October 23, 1888; she afterwards 
married John Lasley. John and Amanda 
died quite young. Joseph S. died in 1865, 
the day of his discharge from the United 
States army in Texas. Robert, the youngest 



158 THE BOYD FAMILY. 

son of Samuel Boyd, the old soldier of the 
revolution, was born October 24, 1798. He 
married Narcissa Stinson. He was the father 
of William and James Boyd of Henry county. 
He also had three daughters, Louisa, the 
wife of James C. Peed, and Martha Jane, his 
former wife, and Mary Ann, wife of Henry 
Bond, living in Wayne county. Robert 
moved to Henry county at a very early day 
and built a cabin in the woods where James' 
residence now stands. He was a very worthy 
citizen and greatly respected by all who kn^w 
him, but he was cut down in the midst of his 
years by a malignant fever that visited that 
neighborhood in 1852 and '53. His death 
occurred February 24, 1853. The disease 
was so fatal in its nature that it took away 
more than fifty per cent, of those who were 
attacked. Several homes were entirely broken 
up when the disease subsided. 

Samuel Boyd had three daughters younger 
than Elizabeth. Martha,tbe oldest of the three, 
was born November 27, 1800. She married 
Joseph Lewis, who became one of Wayne 
county's wealthiest citizens His home was 
near Williamsburg, and now belongs to Will- 
iam Hunt, who married Josephine Lewis. 
Only two sons were born to them. Samuel, 



THE BOYD -FAMILY. 159 

their first born son, died in childhood, and 
John Harvey Lewis lives in the West. They 
had ten daughters, four of whom are living. 
Two died in childhood, and four have been 
taken away more recently, to wit: Louisa Cra- 
ner, Minerva Swearingen, Adaline, unmar- 
ried, and Larinda Clawson. Caroline Stiggle- 
man, Clarissa Smith, Narcissa Jenkinson and 
Josephine Hunt are all living in Wayne 
county. Mr. Jenkinson, husband to Narcissa, 
has long been editor of the Richmond Palla- 
dhim, and is also postmaster in that city. 

Martha, wife of Joseph Lewis, died October 
22, 1882. Her husband survived her only a 
few months. He departed this life March 
4, 1883. 

Mary, the third daughter of Samuel Boyd, 
was born in Kentucky, January 20, 1803. 
She married Abner Bradbury, a man who 
stood high in rank among his cotemporaries, 
both in intellect and morals. He was ele 'ted 
to the Indiana Legislature, once to the Lower 
House and twice to the Senate. They had 
seven sons, all well to do in life, and all liv- 
ing until a few weeks ago, January 23, 1892. 
Dr. Allison Bradbury, the youngest son, was 
killed while driving across the railroad track, 
coming in contact with the lightning express 



160 THE BOYD FAMILY. 

train. His wife, and son and daughter, both 
grown, live in Muncie. William, the oldest 
son of Abner and Mary Bradburj^, lives in 
Richmond, where he has long been a dealer 
in real estate. 

James, the second son, is a farmer, and 
lives in Henry county, near New Castle. 
Samuel, the third son, is in the mercantile 
business, and lives in Ohio. D. M. Brad- 
bury, the fourth son, is a lawyer and capital- 
ist of Indianapolis. Burns, the fifth son, 
lives in Muncie, Indiana. He has a farm 
near by, that he oversees. Albert, the sixth 
son, has long been a resident of Cambridge 
City, Indiana; he follows mercantile pur- 
suit. Walter, a little son, died August 16, 
1848. 

The daughters were: Isabel, who married 
James Leeson. She died February 18, 1880. 
Caroline married James Russell, a farmer, 
and they live near Alexandria, Indiana. 
Lizzie married Isaac Harned, who has been 
dead a number of years. She lives in Cam- 
bridge City, Indiana. Martha Jane married 
Josephus Mundell. They live on a farm 
near Hagerstown, Indiana. Mary died be- 
fore she arrived to womanhood. Her death 
occurred September 30, 1855. 



THE BOYD FAMILY. 161 

Emma, the youngest daughter, faithfully 
took care of her aged parents in all the afflic- 
tions that came to them before death released 
them from this clayey tenement. 

Abner M. Bradbury died September 18, 
1885. Mary, wife of Abner M. Bradbur}^, 
died February 16, 1890. 

Isabel, the youngest daughter of Samuel 
Boyd, was born April 26, 1805. She mar- 
ried William Ladd. They lived on a farm 
near Williamsburgh, Wayne county, Indi- 
ana, where they enjoyed a reasonable degree 
of health, but with a desire to increase his 
possessions, he made a disastrous move to 
Grant county. There was much sickness in 
the locality where they settled and they soon 
became the sad victims of disease. Catha- 
rine, their oldest daughter, married Jonathan 
Wright. She was taken away with fever. 
Samuel and Cicero, the two next, died with 
consumption. They both left families. Abel, 
the third son, died with fever peculiar to the 
climate. Caroline, the youngest daughter, 
died with some lingering mental malady. 
Constantine was killed by the falling of a 
tree. Only Boyd, the youngest son, is liv- 
ing. The parents died, the mother with con- 
sumption, September 14, 1864 ; the father, 
with fever. 
11 



162 DR. BOYD AND BROTHERS 



CHAPTER VI. 

Anti-Slavery Principles — Doctor Boyd and His Broth- 
ers in the Army —Death of Doctor Boyd — Luxury of 
Officials. 

The descendants of Samuel Boyd inherited 
anti-slavery principles from childhood. The 
idea seemed to be inherent with them that 
God had given to the whole human family 
certain inalienable rights and that among 
these were life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness. During the long conflict in which 
the talent of our great nation was exerting 
master skill in trying to harmonize two con- 
tending forces, slavery and freedom, there 
vv^as not in all that fraternity an apologist for 
the horrid features of American slaver3^ De- 
nunciations went up long and loud when 
Henry Clay presented his infamous bill called 
the ''Fugitive Slave Law." 

Ah, why was slavery allowed to set its 
cloven foot upon soil that had been conse- 
crated to freedom by the blood of patriots, by 
the martyred hosts that had been sacrificed in 
the name of liberty? It was a canker-worm 



IN THE ARMY. 163 

that had been left to prey upon the vitals of 
our nation, sapping its life-blood and spread- 
ing blight and mildew in its course through 
a long vista of years, germinating strife and 
internal discord until it at last culminated in 
the great rebellion. 

When the civil war broke out and the mar- 
tial drums were beating and calling loudly 
for volunteers, there was but one family of 
the Boyds that gave a heavy response to the 
call and that was the famil}^ of John Boyd, 
then living in Dublin. Four sons and two 
sons-in-law enlisted in the Union army, all of 
them heads of families. Three of them never 
saw home after they went into the service, 
and one came home an invalid and died from 
disease contracted in the army. The late Dr. 
Samuel S. Boyd, of Dublin, was the oldest of 
the four brothers who enlisted in the army. 
He was surgeon of the Eighty-fourth Indi- 
ana Regiment. I called on him for some 
notes relative to their army life and he pre- 
pared me a ver}" affecting letter which I will 
give entire. 

" Joseph L. Boyd, the youngest of the four 
brothers who went into the army, enlisted as 
a private in the Fifty-seventh Regiment In- 
diana Volunteers in the summer of 1861. 



164 I)R- BOYD AND BROTHERS 

After various hardships in Kentucli}^ in the 
winter of 1861 and 1862, he was engaged in 
his first and last battle at Pittsburg Landing, 
April, 1862. From the terrible exposure 
there in almost continuous rain for two weeks 
without tents, he was attacked with typhoid 
pneumonia, from which he died early in May 
at New Albany, Indiana, having been brought 
there to a hospital in a boat. Seeing his 
name among the sick arrivals at Louisville, 
I took the next train for that place. After 
hunting over the hospital for him I went over 
to New Albany and found him there dying. 
He seemed to know me and spoke of home, 
of the war, of friends and his family in such 
confusion that I could feel sure of nothing 
more than that he had a vague belief that I 
was his brother or some near friend. He died 
about twelve hours after I arrived, talking 
incoherently to the last. This being my first 
great trial during the war it was the most 
agonizing of all. I had gone to Pittsburg 
Landing after the battle, at Governor Morton's 
request. I left Lewis well, but I thought he 
was so anxious to see his family, asking if I 
thought the Avar would soon be over; then 
to meet him so soon after on his wav home 



liS THE ARMY. 165 

which he only reached in his coffin, is the 
saddest remembrance of ni}^ life. 

"John, William and myself were all mem- 
bers of the Eighty-fourth Regiment of 
Indiana Volunteers. The regiment left Rich- 
mond in August, 1862. We first went to 
Kentucky to guard Cincinnati against Kirby 
Smith, then to West Virginia. The spring 
of 1863 found us in Tennessee. The first 
battle in which the Eighty-fourth took part 
was Chickamauga, in which we lost 123 men, 
killed and wounded. When Sherman, in 
the spring of 1864, moved toward Atlanta, 
William A. Boyd, then major of the regiment, 
was wounded in the first engagement at 
Rocky Face, May 19. He was taken back to 
Chattanooga, after having his right leg ampu- 
tated at the thigh, where he died July lltli, 
two months and one day after he w^as wound- 
ed. His wife was with him about three 
weeks before he died. She brought him 
home, and he was interred at Center ville. 
N-o braver soldier ever laid down his life for 
his country than Major Boyd. He was com- 
missioned captain before leaving Wayne 
county. He was afterward promoted to ma- 
jor, and when he was wounded he had a 
lieutenant-colonel's commission, but had 



166 I>K- BOVP A^^D BROTHERS 

never been nuistered in as such. John F. 
Boyd was mustered into the Eighty-fourth as 
private, afterward appointed orderly-sergeant, 
then promoted to lieutenant. He was with 
his regiment and went with Slierman to At- 
lanta, then came back with General Thomas 
to Nashville. He was in the battle at Frank- 
lin and Nashville, and with the Eighty-fourth 
was mustered out in June, 1805. He lived 
ten years after the war, but never saw a well 
day on account of disease contracted in the 
army, chronic diarrhea ending in ulceration 
of the stomacli. Joel Hipes, my brother- 
in-law, enlisted in the Eighth Indiana 
Regiment, and died at St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, early in 1862. John M. Commons 
was quartermaster of the Fifty-seventli. " 

Dr. Samuel S. Boyd, the only surviving 
one of the four brothers when this sketch 
was written, has since been called away from 
the shores of time. He departed this life 
April 15, 1888. He was a man of good in- 
tellect and a true philanthropist, willing to 
espouse any cause, however unpopular, if it 
seemed to forebode good to his fellow-men. 
He was found at tlie front in nearly every 
good work. He was a reformer in the true 
sense of the word. 



IX THE ARMY. 167 

When I received his letter, telling the sad 
tale of their army life, I attempted to read it 
aloud to those present, and although the 
cycles of time had measured twenty-five years 
since that terrible battle at Pittsburg Landing, 
my voice faltered and failed at the description 
of the poor soldiers without tents in that 
drenching rain, while they stood so long as 
targets for rebel guns, and were falling by 
scores every hour. We are too forgetful of 
the sufferings endured by the private soldiers. 
AVhile there is a blaze of glory that encircles 
the head of the commander who has led his 
troops on to victory, yet the names of the pri- 
vate soldiers who fought bravely and fell in the 
conflict are forever obliterated from the pages 
of history, and from the memory of those 
who live to enjoy the blessings for which they 
fought. If all the money spent in extrav- 
agance and debauchery by our officials at 
Washington City, and especially what has 
been so disgracefully appropriated to funeral 
processions, were given to the poor soldiers, it 
would seem more like equality. 

The people of this nation should wage a 
constant warfare against those high circles in 
which the rulers of our Nation desecrate their 
office by luxury and self-indulgence. We 



168 I>R- BOYD AND BROTHERS. 

need more of the spirit of Washington, who 
declined to occupy a fine mansion, donated 
him by wealthy citizens after he became presi- 
dent. He said his old house was good 
enough. We are drifting too far away from 
the virtue of our noble ancestors. 



PIONEER LIFE AT MT. A^ERNON. 169 



CHAPTER VII. 

PIONEER LIFE AT MT. VERNON. 

While I am giying incidents relative to the 
early settlers of this country, a good part of 
which is family history, I feel that it would 
be interesting to give brief sketches from the 
lives of others. I have before me a letter 
written by a very aged man who in his child- 
hood days was familiar at the Mt. Vernon 
homestead. He had accompanied his father 
who was one of the guests that met to wel- 
come the honored hero when he returned 
home to domestic life at the termination of 
his second presidential term. The occasion 
was made one of general rejoicing. The 
writer said : ' ' I have looked upon many 
mighty men; I have seen the great Napoleon 
in his full flush of pride and triumph; I have 
seen George IV, the first gentleman of Eu- 
rope; I have personally known Lord Byron, 
Sir Walter Scott, Daniel O'Connell, Dan- 
iel Webster and many others most famous in 
the affairs of government, arms, literature, 



170 PIONEER LIFE AT MT. VERNON. 

statesmanship and oratory, but never have I 
seen any other man who impressed me, child 
though I was, with such massive presence as 
did General Washington when he stood upon 
the veranda at Mt. Vernon and in a few well 
chosen words thanked us for our demonstra- 
tion of welcome. 

" Down in the negro quarters numerous 
pot-pies were cooking and many juicy oppos- 
sums were roasting before the brightly burning- 
wood fires. Then in the grand old banquet 
liall at Mt. Vernon Washington and his 
country neighbors sat down to one of the old- 
fashioned rural Virginia suppers of that 
period. Oh, those were halcyon days in 'Ole 
Viginny,' when neighbors met together, rich 
and poor alike, to help each other at log- 
rollings, barn raisings, harvestings, huskings 
and to frolic merrily when the work was done. 
Long after I was a married man great big 
gals in old Virginny, with long waist ribbons 
and dress sleeves puffed out like a balloon, 
would carry their shoes under their arm until 
they came close to the meeting-house, then 
they would stop and put them on and they'd 
holler for General Jackson if it killed them. 

''Those who are familiar with the Mt. 
Vernon of to-dav with its two hundred acres 



PIONEER LIFE AT MT. VERNON. 171 

can scarcely realize that in Washington's 
time it numbered several thousand. It was 
originally known as the Hunting Creek es- 
tate, but when Laurence Washington, George's 
half brother, inherited it from their father, 
he re-christened it Mt. Vernon in honor of 
the British admiral under whom he had 
served in the disastrous campaign against 
Carthagenia in South America. At his death 
it descended to his daughter Jennie and she 
died soon after and the estate fell to George 
Washington. 

^^No man was ever more thoroughly fa- 
miliar with every detail of his affairs or 
gave closer supervision to his estate than did 
George Washington. Those were the days 
when the women pulled the flax while the men 
broke, swingled and hackled it, then twisted it 
into little cues for the women to spin and 
weave. I have geen the immortal George 
stoop down and pull flax to show some green 
hand among the women how it should be 
done. This flax raising was among the chief 
industries at Mt. Vernon and even now I 
seem to see there bleaching in the sun the 
long strips, white as the driven snow, from 
which sheets, pillow-cases, towels, table- 
cloths, napkins, underclothing and even 



172 PIONEER LIFE AT MT. VERNON. 

pants for the great Washington himself were 
made. In my mind's eye I see again the fe- 
male slayes carding wool with hand-cards 
into rolls read}^ to spin on tlieir big wheels. 
I imagine I hear them singing their quaint 
old plantation h^^mns and songs of the South 
as the wheels go merrily round, while moy- 
ing ubiquitously oyer eyery part of the 
estate I see once more the tall, erect figure of 
the master." 

This history seemed so wonderful to me 
that I felt inclined to copy it, giyen so re- 
cently by one whose memory reached back to 
the year 1797, and was a frequent visitor at 
the Mt. Vernon homestead during the nearly 
three years it was occupied by the retired 
president. The large estate at Mt. Vernon was 
only yisited once by George Washington dur- 
ing the war which lasted nearly eight years. 
He then remained at tlie homestead until he 
was called to the presidential chair, his inaug- 
uration taking place at New York, April 30, 
1789. After serving the people faithfully 
eight years in that capacity, he then retired to 
Mt. Vernon at the age of sixty-fiye. France 
now threatened hostilities and General Wash- 
ington was again made commander-in-chief 
of the American army. While on duty he 



PIONEER LIFE AT MT. VERN'ON. 173 

was exposed to a ride in a snow-storm which 
brought on an attack of acute laryngitis which 
hastily terminated his life. He owned one 
hundred and twenty-four slaves at the time of 
his death which had come to him with a large 
estate when he married the beautiful young 
widow of Col. Daniel P. Curtis. George Wash- 
ington provided in his will that all his slaves 
should be set free at the death of his wife, 
who survived him only three years. He was 
a member of the Episcopal church until his 
death, yet some history fell into my hands 
lately stating that John Gano, a Baptist min- 
ister who was chaplain in the Revolutionary 
army, baptized George Washington in the Po- 
tomac river. This history is attested to by 
the Gano descendants. 

I have given these brief incidents of fron- 
tier life as they are connected with that great 
man so loved and honored by the American 
people. 



APR 16 1901 



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